Tales of Zestiria: The World Beyond
by RinYukiohara
Summary: Taking place after the Shepherd's journey, Sorey and Mikleo have continued on their hunt for ruins only to find two newcomers. Despite their many similarities with these newcomers, it seems as if something is off. -Wonders of Mysteria belongs to me -Tales of Akora belongs to Skulblakasaphira on DA
1. Chapter 1

"Arthur, are you sure this is where we need to go?" Celica held onto her partner's arm.

"I'm sure of it!" Arthur said with a nervous yet calm tone.

Arthur Rulay, a member of Aero Lumera's Salvation Front, a group dedicated to exterminating monsters in the world of Lumina. He was a simple knight and son of the current governor, Stan Maxwell. He had light blonde hair that was short with light, almost icy, blue eyes. He wore a long white cape with light blue as an inverted color; white and golden top and shoe gear; black pants; and long white gloves. And his partner Celica, his spirit companion and old friend.

Celica had white hair that turned green near the tips with matching eyes. She wore a long-sleeved, green and white dress, with green and white heels. She was found by Arthur and his team during a war between two countries and took her back to Aero Lumera. At first, she didn't have any memories or even a personality, but as she traveled with Arthur, she learned how to live, and gained a personality of her own, and something of a liking to her partner it seemed.

The two had ventured their way into a temple and found themselves lost in the corridors. Celica held onto her partner's arm; she was scared, she hadn't gone into a temple before and anything could come out of the darkness to attack. She had a good relationship with her partner, of course, the two were assigned together and would be separated depending on power or rank or either. Something then came out of the shadows and scared her; Arthur put his hand on his sword's handle just in case

"Isn't it amazing?! Look at these ruins!" A boy walked down the hallway.

"I wonder how old it is." His friend stood by his side and looked at the markings on the ruins; something Arthur even hadn't noticed.

"Oh hey!" The first boy noticed the two.

"Hello," Arthur said as Celica hid behind him.

"I haven't seen you around before, are you travelers?" The boy asked.

"Sorey! Don't just go up to random people and talk to them!" His friend said.

"But Mikleo," Sorey looked to Mikleo; it looked like he was just too excited to meet new people to think about it.

"Don't worry about it. Sorey, right? My name is Arthur Rulay, and this is my partner, Celica."

(Look what's getting revived! If you're one my FB friends, you'll know I've had this made for a while. I'm horrid at fan fictions so I'll try my hardest.

I've set the story after the event of the game so all I really must do is stay in world and personality of characters, which isn't hard because I know these characters inside and out. And thanks to a fan fiction I've been reading "Lady Calamity and the Shepherd" which is on my reading list, Velvet and crew will be appearing some time. Not a spoiler because I don't even have an outline, I'm doing whatever I want with a hint of Vanessa. And if I get permission, I'll add her in too.

These will be short chapters for now, my focus is my main series and I'll be putting way more effort into those chapters. This will be updated whenever I want it to, so no deadlines or once a month if it's done. Just whenever I want.)


	2. Chapter 2

"Sorey, Mikleo," Arthur said as he wandered out of the temple and saw the two boys were outside.

"Arthur, Celica, hey." Sorey waved back as his partner did a face palm.

"What are you two doing here?"

"We're still looking at the temple. It's amazing."

"Ruin lovers huh?" Celica said with a smile on her face. "A bit like Arthur here."

"I can't deny it," Arthur rubbed the back of his head.

The temple was huge in decor and design, it was like a fairy tale if Arthur didn't know better. Places like that existed in Lumina of course, but in small quantities. Those ruins were created by the ancients of the world, perhaps much like the ones in Sorey's world. Perhaps there was much more to Sorey and his partner than met the eye.

Sorey himself was a strange boy, he was fascinated by the smallest of things and his partner Mikleo was the same. Mikleo seemed to be more informational when it came to ruins while Sorey just fancied the looks. When the four finally got a time to sit down and rest, they got to know one another better.

Arthur wanted to keep his world a secret from the boys and so did Celica, so they made the excuse of coming from another land. Sorey was just the same as he was in the ruins, he asked more and more questions and become more curious as Arthur made up stories. Hopefully Sorey wasn't the type to figure out a lie, but it wasn't completely a lie, only the names changed for Arthur. The spirits of Lumina worked so like the seraphim of Sorey's world. It was almost uncanny.

Things such as resonance and Artes were also the same. Which was even stranger. What was different, was the concept of the Shepherd. Sorey was one at a time, he made a pact with the seraph Lailah and received the silver flame to purify the hellions. In Lumina, rather the universe Lumina was from, the term was "Savior" and the silver flame came from the reincarnation of the god who had it. With how different the two worlds were at that point, Arthur left out the knowledge he had of saviors and just nodded to Sorey's words about the Shepherd.

"We should probably head back home," Sorey finally said.

"We'll have to pass Lady Lake in order to do that," Mikleo reminded his friend.

"You don't mind if we tag, along do you?" Arthur asked.

"I have no problem with it," Sorey answered.

"Maybe we'll see if Lailah, Rose and Edna are around."

"Old friends of yours?" Arthur asked another question hoping it wasn't too much.

"They helped us on our journey. Maybe we'll see Alisha too."

"The princess, right?" Celica asked.

"How did you-" Arthur stooped himself after he saw Sorey and Mikleo's faces.

"They said they went on a journey with Alisha, and from her description, she sounded like a princess."

"Sometimes I don't know what to do with you."

"Let's go then, we'll show you the way!" Sorey said with a smile on his face.

(So short ahhhh. Okay, I got permission to use Vanessa's OC for Zestiria, so I'll add her in probably in a dungeon adventure or from a visit to a certain ruin I have planned. Velvet and crew will join later after that. I still don't have a script so I'm still doing whatever I want.)


	3. Chapter 3

Rose awoke from a long sleep; it was daytime already and she forgot that the others were waiting for her. Lailah stood in the living room of the inn and Edna sat at the chair next to a table. They were seraphim so no one could see them. Rose approached Lailah first, and with her usual childlike attitude, Lailah greeted Rose with enthusiasm. Zaveid was the only one not there, he must have been out to look for a way to turn Eizen back into a seraph.

On the table by Edna, Rose noticed a book with a leather strap that kept it together. On the cover, was an image of a purple Phoenix. If Sorey was there, he'd surely want to investigate it further. When Rose tried to peek inside, she saw that the pages were blank. All except for the last page, which had the words "song of the sea and lullaby of the wind" written in blue ink.

Rose picked up the book and put it in her bag, she wanted to show Sorey when she saw him again. That and her own curiosity made her interested to see what the book was about.

Sorry awoke to hear a large crash right outside his inn room. When he checked it out, he saw that Arthur and Celica were practicing. Celica used a wind artes to push Arthur back as he held his sword up to defend. Once they saw Sorey was up, they stopped and greeted him.

"Sorey, how did you sleep?" Arthur asked.

"Pretty good," Sorey responded with a yawn.

"Sorry about this, we got bored waiting."

"Where's Mikleo?"

"He said he'd be out by the river."

"Sounds like him, let's go see what he's up to."

The river flowed steadily as Mikleo created waterspouts one by one. On the other side of the river, was a town. Sorey said that he and his friends visited once and purified a dragon with the help of Alisha. Closer in the water, there was a disturbance from Mikleo's artes.

"Mikleo," Arthur began. "What else can you do?"

"I have a few other abilities, including-" Mikleo stares before Sorey interrupted him.

"The armatus!" Sorey said in excitement.

"Arthur and I can do that as well," Celica let out. "Oops."

"Celica..." Arthur said with sadness in his tone, or was its disappointment?

"I didn't think anyone else could do it besides the Shepherd and squires." Mikleo said thinking about it.

"Well it's complicated..." Arthur has the feeling of dread deep inside, he knew that too much information about their world was bad for him and Celica.

(Another short chapter. I'm still super busy and just found some time to take a rest. This is beginning of a new character's introduction. We'll be meeting Alisha and Zaveid later and because I'm going by the anime's logic, Eizen is still alive and Alisha is the queen with Maltran by her side.)


	4. Chapter 4

"Well if it isn't the kid Shepherd." A voice called out from above.

"Zaveid!" Sorey said recognizing the voice.

"Nice to see you again, and who's your cute friend here?" Zaveid said as he put his arm around Celica.

"My name is Arthur, and that's Celica." Arthur merely sighed as Celica slowly backed away from Zaveid.

Zaveid, a seraph who aided in Sorey's journey and was more or less annoying than he was helpful. He stayed close to Celica as she stood frozen not completely sure what to do with the new addition to the group. When he said was around for the time since he was done playing with the new Shepherd Rose, both Sorey and Mikleo looked like they were about to jump and the mention of her name. She was also an old friend and according to Zaveid, she was in town.

With his curiosity, Sorey wanted to see what Rose was up to. The last he heard; she was around with Alisha.

"Sorey," Rose said as she saw the group enter town.

Lastonbell was its name. It was a city in Gleenwood with plenty of plants to be seen, a bit too much than Arthur and Celica were used to. The sun shone down on the city and created shadows that passed through the sidewalks and plants.

"I have something you might like," Rose brought Arthur back into focus when she gave Sorey a book. It was the same one Edna had found.

"What is this?" Sorey asked.

"Dunno, thought you might like to check it out."

"It doesn't look too old," Mikleo took a closer look at the book. The cover had changed to have a sky like pattern in the middle with blue gems on the sides and a golden border.

"That's weird," Rose said. "It had a purple Phoenix on it last time."

"Woah, changing book covers?" Zaveid had a sarcastic and serious tone in his voice, which Arthur thought wasn't possible.

"I've never seen anything like it," Arthur tried to open the book only for it to close back quickly.

"Maybe it needs a key," Lailah said enthusiastically.

"Or it doesn't want to be read," Edna said in her usual monotone way of speaking.

"Well," Rose then looked to Sorey. "Are you going to introduce us?"

"Oh right," Sorey put the book away for the time being. "This is Arthur and Celica."

"How interesting!" Of course, it was Lailah who took the most interest.

The seraph went straight to Celica and circled the girl. She then went to Arthur and checked him out. According to her, Arthur was extremely similar to Sorey in terms of power and Celica was similar to an old friend she knew. She took interest in who the two were and didn't stop asking questions until Rose pulled her pback. Rose said they had other things to focus on and made it known she was talking about the book.

Edna had found the book in the Galahad ruins and brought it back while Rose was in Lady Lake, perhaps if they went there, they would find out more about it. If they were lucky, they would find the owner open the book.

(This is in a different format than my usual work. Being that dialogue is the way the story is moved forward; it is based off a game. We're heading into the "Phoenix" arc with Vanessa. I am getting help from my nee san who I've given credit to in the description of this story. Go ahead and check her out, she does more art than writing but she's really good. We're working together on the introduction of Vanessa, so it'll be awhile before the chapter is out.)


	5. Chapter 5

The Galahad ruins, the place where Edna found the mysterious book and where the party thought they'd find the owner as well. Sorey and Mikleo went ahead with the book as the others stayed behind. Per usual, Lailah asked questions about what type of people Arthur and Celica were. And once again, Rose stopped the seraph from overloading the two with questions.

At the ruins, was also a girl, she had dark brown hair with purple feathers as earrings and blue eyes. She wore a light purple dress with a grey jacket over it along with dark blue pants and brown boots. Around her neck was a purple gem and a golden phoenix pendant around it. And around her waist was a belt that was attached to a bag on her side. Just from the pendant alone, the party deduced that she had something to do with the book. Her name was Vanessa Dracorifianne, and she was looking for something she had dropped in the ruins. Arthur invited her to join to find it and despite how shy she was about it, she accepted.

"Sorey, we found someone." Arthur said as he introduced Vanessa to Sorey and Mikleo.

"My name is Vanessa Dracorifianne, nice to meet you." Vanessa bowed to introduce herself. In her tone, was shyness and fear of the people she was meeting.

"Show her the book." Arthur suggested.

"Book?" Vanessa asked.

"You said you dropped something, well, we may have it."

"Edna found it here somewhere." Rose spoke up.

"Here," Sorey showed the girl the book and her face lit up.

"This is it!" Vanessa quickly took the book and hugged it.

The book in a sense was her diary, she wrote down the tales of her adventures and a legend that existed in her family. To say the least, she was happy to have it back. Vanessa opened it with ease, which surprised the party since none of them could open it. She went through some pages and did find some were wet, which must have been when she dropped it.

Vanessa sighed in relief and put the book in her bag. She bowed again in thanks and went off. "So much for that" was what Rose said to Vanessa leaving so soon. The girl obviously had things on her mind, and she was satisfied just to have the book back with her. Arthur, on the other hand, was not okay with letting it go so fast and followed the girl. Vanessa, while shy about it, told Arthur a bit about the book before they were interrupted by a large crash. Behind her, was a monster, a hellion rather. It was a form of a large spider over twice her size and it alone made her scared. She hated spiders and ran the other direction.

Arthur summoned a sword with Celica and the others right beside him. He ran up to the hellion and stabbed his sword in while Celica used wind artes to help him with getting up there. Sorey and Rose attacked its legs, and the rest of the seraphim aided in getting the monster down. Just when the battle seemed to be over, the hellion went to attack Vanessa only to be blocked by Sorey. The ground then gave in and the two were sent down to the lower floor. Mikleo created a bubble of water right before they hit the ground and padded their fall.

Arthur took care of the hellion with Celica by his side and told the others to get Sorey and Vanessa out of there.

(Cliff hanger maybe? Thanks Vanessa nee for letting me use your OC. Of course, she'll probably be the only OC I'll add so please don't ask, this is just between Vanessa and I, and yes, it is a bit confusing when I have to say her name and her OC's name. Which is why I usually just say "nee san."

Whew, this is probably the longest chapter for this title, which is sad because my normal series is about three to four thousand words. I don't have much time to be on and I just spent two hours telling a guy how Kingdom Hearts Union X works, so I really don't have time. Next time, Sorey and Vanessa character development.)


	6. Chapter 6

The party, with Vanessa, entered Lady Lake, the place where Sorey got his powers as the Shepherd and where they first met Lailah. Thankfully, it wasn't covered by malevolence.

Arthur sat on the couch with Celica who looked outside the window as Sorey and Vanessa sat by the fireplace to warm up. Rose had some soup for them help with the Edna's aid in making it, while the others sat at a table remembering the good old times. Despite his older look, Mikleo hadn't changed a bit, he was the same ruins loving kid he always was. According to Zaveid.

"Sorey," Vanessa began. "Do you have the Celestial Record?"

"Celestial Record?" Arthur asked.

"It's a book about the history of this world. I thought you'd know about it." Sorey said.

"Oh...I do. It's just been a while since I've heard the name." Arthur made up an excuse, hopefully it was convincing.

"Here Vanessa," Mikleo showed her the book.

"Also," Sorey said as he looked at the girl with a smile. "Can I read your book?"

"It's...it's um...it's a bit personal. But sure." Vanessa's face turned red when he asked her.

"Is it too personal?" Celica asked.

"We don't have to if you don't want to." Sorey said as he saw her look.

"How about another day? I'd really like to read the Celestial Records; I never had the chance to read it before." Vanessa had a shy smile on her face.

"Do you like ruins?" Sorey asked.

"Sorey here is also what you'd call a 'ruins nerd'." Rose laughed a bit at that sentence.

"Hey!" Sorey looked directly at her a bit embarrassed.

"I'm also a bit of a 'ruins nerd' myself." Vanessa laughed along with Rose.

"I suppose you have that in common." Arthur said as he stood up.

"Going somewhere?" Edna asked.

"Just for a walk." He went out the door and kept it open a bit for Celica to follow.

"Arthur! Wait for me!" Celica went right after him as he expected.

"At least he could've kept the little lady around." Zaveid sighed.

Arthur looked at the night sky, it was cloudy, and the stars shone dimly behind the clouds. That was when he felt something, a strong wind perhaps. He knew that air anywhere, the air of something off. He and Celica walked down the sidewalk as he followed the feeling. It was like an energy that was present, something that rivaled even Sorey or Rose's energy.

At the end of the sidewalk was a woman. She looked up to see the castle and turned back to see the two. When she approached them, the energy got stronger? She said one sentence to them then left: why do you think birds fly? A strange question.

From the way the woman acted, she was serious about that question. There was something off about her, something he didn't exactly know. It was a familiar and foreign feeling at the same time. What was it? That was the question he had on his mind.

It was too dark to do any real investigation so both him and Celica headed back to the inn.

"Arthur," Celica said as she looked at the water. "Why do you think we're here?"

"I can't say, but I feel like there's something in this world that dragged us in. It's such a similar world to ours, so there must be a connection." Arthur made a fist with his hand. "The others from our world must be worried about it, if only we could contact them. Celica, we need to keep up this act, while it's not too hard, we shouldn't say anything of line."

"Right."

"I had a hard time sleeping." Rose yawned.

"It was a rough night." Edna said in her usual tone.

"Man, I felt off all night." Zaveid rubbed the back of his head.

"Same here." Arthur sat in thought for a while. "Perhaps..."

"Something wrong Arthur?" Mikleo asked.

"When I was out, I met a woman who seemed to give off a strange energy. Almost like Sorey and Rose in a way."

"Do you think it could be a hellion?" Sorey asked.

"I don't know. Maybe."

"Let's be careful then, we don't know who it is and don't know what they're capable of." Celica said.

"First time I've heard something mature out of you." Arthur pet her head and smiled.

"Hey!"

"How about we talk with Alisha about this?" Rose suggested.

"Alisha?" Vanessa's head tilted at the mention of the princess' name.

"The princess, right?" Arthur tried to make it clear for her.

"Technically she's the queen, but we do hang out sometimes." Rose smiled from the thought of the adventures she had with Alisha.

"Hang out with the queen? That sounds weird..." Arthur kept his gaze on Rose.

"We're old friends, and plus, she needs some time off. She can't be ruling all the time."

"Do you know how royalty works Rose?"

"Huh?"

"Okay guys, let's not get in a fight." Sorey broke them up. "Let's go see Alisha and see what she has to say! Okay?"

"Fine." Arthur sighed; he saw the enjoyment Sorey had by just the mention of Alisha.

It was clear they all knew one another for much longer than Arthur and Celica knew they for. As for Vanessa, she was new at the whole thing. She did seem to warm up to Sorey quickly and had fun when she read the Celestial Records. Unlike Arthur and Celica, she fit in just fine.

(Boom and another chapter. This one just kept going and I was having fun writing it. I'll edit this more tomorrow, just grammar and changes if Vanessa sees anything she wants to change about the interaction between her OC and Sorey.

Anyways, meeting Alisha next chapter. The queen and old friend of Sorey. Also, Maltran will be there, I think I've specified I'm following the anime for events like these. The Zestiria arc is soon to end, which was fast, and we'll be heading into the Berseria arc, and following that with the Phoenix arc.

I'll see how much time I have tomorrow to work on this, but it seems I can get a chapter out a day or every two days. No promises.

Once the Zestiria arc is done, I'll probably head back to my series and work on those since I've been putting them off for cute icons (DA only) and this. I still haven't worked on the Mystic Artes for my series, I need to do those I'm just scared of doing the backgrounds. Have a good morning, good afternoon or good night for whenever you're reading this.)


	7. Chapter 7

Queen Alisha of Hyland and her guard Maltran. The two stood in the hallway of the castle and welcomed the party. Well, it did take some convincing on Sorey and Rose to allow Arthur, Celica and Vanessa inside. After all, the three were newcomers.

"I'm glad to see you again Sorey." Alisha said as she continued to look outside.

"You look nice Alisha." Were the only words Sorey had in his mind at the time.

"Is something wrong your majesty?" Arthur asked.

"Oh, sorry, I'm still not used to that." Alisha blushed a bit. "Yes, there has been something bothering me. It's been harder to sleep lately, I think I've been thinking too much."

"It was the same for us last night." Rose said.

"Arthur said it might have to do with a hellion." Sorey mentioned.

"A hellion? Here?" Alisha had shock in her tone.

"Was there anything different that happened recently around here?" Arthur asked.

"Yes actually, there was a red moon a few days ago."

"Oh right, wait, do you think that it's connected?" Rose was almost in shock as well.

"It might be, if it has anything to do with a woman and the energy I felt from her, than it must." Arthur said.

That strange woman and her question, "why do you think birds fly?" Whoever she was, she seemed to be the cause of the strange energy that they had felt through the night. Even in the day, the energy was present.

Arthur looked outside to see what Alisha saw, and he knew it when he saw it, a strong energy just outside the castle gates. A mix of black and purple waves that flowed from a puddle of negativity. That was malevolence. The energy that turned creatures into hellions.

Vanessa held tightly onto her book, there was something she knew as well. She read the Celestial Records with Sorey, so recognized what that malevolence meant. It was known as "the Lord of Calamity".

"Queen Alisha, are you sure you want to go out?" Maltran asked.

"I'm sure, please, take care of the kingdom for me while I'm gone." Alisha said. She was out of her dress and into a cute blue, white and black outfit that looked fancy and elegant while being flexible at the same time.

"Of course, take care of her please."

"She'll be fine, it'll be like old times, right Alisha?" Rose smiles right at Alisha.

"Right." Was the only thing Alisha said.

"Where are we going?" Celica asked.

"Well, we all saw the hellion this morning right? We're going after it." Rose responded.

"You are all insane." Arthur sighed.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to." Mikleo said.

"Doesn't really matter." Edna opened her umbrella.

"But I like having the cutie around." Zaveid said as he looked towards Celica.

"It'll be so much fun to have more though!" Lailah was too happy for something like that.

"We'll stay, just for the excitement right Celica?" Arthur patted Celica on her head.

"And can I come too?" Vanessa asked.

"Of course you can come!" Sorey smiled which made Vanessa blush a bit.

"Well...um...thanks for letting me on board!" That sentence alone made the others laugh. "Oh what?!"

"She's really something isn't she?" Mikleo put his arm over Sorey's shoulder.

"I think this'll be fun." Alisha said with joy in her tone.

(A bit shorter than the last chapter, like half the last chapter's size. This was mainly to introduce Alisha, who is now joining yay! And the Berseria arc. Yes, if you haven't noticed the woman the party are talking about is Velvet Crowe, our lovely Lord of Calamity. She'll be introduced in the next chapter for a fun scene and another fight scene. And if you haven't noticed, Arthur and Celica share the same name as Velvet's brother in law and sister, so it will be pointed out.

I like the Tales series so take inspiration from it, and it just happens I'm using the two who have the same names as those two. This is a pretty self aware story, pointing out the similarities in the worlds and character names soon. Which I'm planning to be a fun scene.

I didn't choose Mileena and Shadow because Mysteria X RD was still running when I first created this prompt and I just ended up sticking with Arthur and Celica. Until next time for the Berseria arc.)


	8. Chapter 8

As the party continued forward, they stopped at the fountain to reminisce. That was a place where Sorey, Mikleo and Lailah first talked about the means of becoming a Shepherd and a bit of what it meant to be one. Lailah was vague about it, so Sorey decided it was best to learn on his own what it meant to be the Shepherd.

Sorey investigated the fountain, and Mikleo followed his lead. Rose and Alisha talked about the old times and the rest of the seraphim sat on the fence, except for Zaveid who was all over Celica. Even Lailah at a point went over to talk until Arthur took Celica away, it must have been hard to be the center of attention. Celica wasn't exactly the most extroverted person in the world and had a hard time when it came to attention.

Vanessa read the Celestial Records and lifted the book up to see Rayfalke Spiritcrest in both drawing and out in the distance. Sorey came up from behind her Mikleo to see what she was doing and made her jump a bit.

"What is it?" Arthur asked.

"This place here, Rayfalke Spiritcast, isn't it where Edna lives?" Vanessa replied.

"Something like that," Edna opened her umbrella and used it to cover her face.

"Right, Eizen is still there." Rose reminded the group.

"Eizen?" Arthur asked another question that got the attention on him.

"Eizen is Edna's big brother," Rose explained. "He turned into a dragon a while ago and still lives up there."

"So, it's the same in that regard," Arthur whispered before he spoke out loud. "Can we do anything?"

"Not unless you can purify a dragon." Lailah shook her head.

They had tried once before, but they couldn't. They had only purified a puppy once, a young dragon, but not a fully formed one. Even the one during the war wasn't purified. The rest of the party had sad looks. That alone gave Arthur the motivation, to go up and see for himself. He was crazy, according to them, which wasn't wrong; he wasn't a Shepherd and didn't have that power, at the very least though, he had to have some form of knowledge that would help.

There wasn't anything to change his mind, which in a way, was much like Sorey. The party all decided to go for it and try one more time, there was nothing to lose if they did. They were all together and nothing was in their way, well, besides the strange woman from that night. And because Arthur was the idiot he was, he forgot about her in a heartbeat. Celica offered for them to split up for the time being, she, Arthur and Zavied would go, Zaveid only because he wouldn't let her out of his sight, while the others did some research. They were to meet back in a day to see what they found.

(I'm a bit stressed on time since I'm at work, but here's another chapter. I did want to wait for my main series to have an update before I updated this, so there's the reason for the late delay. I'm surprised how much this is growing, and a bit jealous it's getting more attention than my main series, but hey, everyone loves a good fan fiction of their favorite game series. I want to keep it interesting and keep everyone in character.

Yes, we are starting the Berseria arc, Velvet is sure to make her appearance in the next chapter with a surprise character, then onto Eizen. Also, I'll be getting some more help from Vanessa for cuter VanessaXSorey scenes, all in favor of more cuteness.)


	9. Chapter 9

"So, where do you guys come from?" Zaveid asked.

"That's still personal Zaveid," Arthur pushed away the question.

"We travel often, so let's say we don't have a home." Celica was the one to make up an excuse, which, it wasn't wrong.

Where the two came from, they did have a place to sleep, but Arthur preferred the wide outdoors. Celica was the one who liked a nice warm room and fire to sit by when it was cold. Aero Lumera, that was the name of the kingdom they were from. Celica, as a reborn spirit, didn't know where she was from. She didn't have any memories of when she was human. That was just another problem she had on her mind daily.

Zaveid broke the tension when he put his arm over Celica's shoulder. She froze in place unsure of what to do and stared at him. He laughed until Arthur dragged him off her and pulled her aside. Arthur stood between the two as it was obvious Celica was unsure of what to do with the seraph who they were stuck with.

"Zaveid, focus!" Arthur snapped at the seraph.

"Okay okay, don't get your hopes up." Zaveid said then looked at the mountain.

"Did you and Eizen have a connection?"

"Yeah, we were old friends back in the day. I made a promise to him, look at me now, I can't even fulfill it."

"What was the promise?" Celica asked.

"That I'd kill him if he became a dragon."

"Is it really impossible?" Vanessa asked Lailah.

"Purifying a dragon is unheard of." Lailah responded.

"If Arthur thinks we can do it, then we might have a chance." Sorey exclaimed.

"You never change Sorey." Mikleo said.

"What does that mean?!"

"Vanessa, does your book have anything about dragons?" Alisha asked.

"Sorry no, this is more of a diary." Vanessa held her book close.

"Sorry! I didn't think!"

"Aw don't be too worried." Rose went behind Alisha and pushed her forward.

They continued to look for anything that they hadn't already read before. Sorey was hopeful that maybe they had missed something last time. That was when Vanessa reached up to grab something off the top of a shelf only for it to drop and break next to her feet. Sorey asked if she was okay and she said was fine while she looked at the broken object.

It was an old compass, one of the ones they used on ships during the olden times. Next to it, was a broken comb, it looked old, as if it was broken for a long time.

"This brings back memories" a woman said behind the party. She saw what was on the ground and went over to pick it up.

"Sorry for breaking it!" Vanessa apologized.

"Don't worry about it, we had many breaks during our travels."

"Our?" Sorey asked.

"I was on a journey not too long ago. And an old friend had a fascination with these compasses."

The woman looked right at Rose, they looked so similar. Rose even reminded the woman of another old friend, with her looks and how she acted. The woman brushed it off and picked up the comb, it belonged to an old friend of hers, and if the rumor was right, that friend was back. She dusted it off and looked at it strangely, almost like she was surprised how old it was.

She left the room with not even the mention of her name. Rose was the one who thought about it the most, the woman had looked right at her before leaving. Even Edna was deep in thought. There was something familiar about the woman, like something she had heard from her brother.

Vanessa checked out the compass again, the poor thing was completely out of commission. She looked through the Celestial Records again to see how old it must have been, she found it was used thousands of years ago, which was much older than she thought. From what the woman said, she and her friends had used it a few years ago. And with the old markings and dust buildup, that didn't seem right.

Arthur, Celica and Zaveid came across the woman they were looking for while she leaned against the railing. Up closer, Arthur saw the bandage she had on her left arm, and the torn jacket she wore. The malevolence got thicker the closer they got, to the point of Celica and Zaveid having to stand back.

"Excuse me." Arthur went up to her and tapped her shoulder.

"Who are you? You've been looking for me." The woman said, she didn't look at Arthur as she spoke, only at the distance.

"Right...my name is Arthur-"

"Huh?" That name got her attention. She looked right at him.

"That's my name."

"You don't look like him."

"Arthur!" Celica cried out, worried for him.

"Not now Celica!" Arthur turned to see her.

"Celica?" The woman got even more curious.

She approached Arthur as he was the closest to her. Her golden eyes shone in the daylight and didn't seem to be dangerous until Arthur backed off and drew his weapon. In response, her left arm glowed and the bandages seemed to burn away, revealing a demonic arm.

"Whoever you are, you're not them." The woman was ready for a fight.

"We don't want a fight!" Arthur kept his sword up.

"Arthur! I'll help!" Celica stood by his side.

"What did you get into?" Zaveid got closer and saw who it was.

"Zaveid?" The woman looked straight to him.

"Velvet?" Zaveid was a bit in shock.

"You know her?" Arthur asked.

"From a long time ago."

Velvet was ready for a fight, whether they were. Arthur has provoked her, and she didn't look like she was about to back down. She charged in for an attack, and Arthur raised his sword to defend.

(Another longish one. Like a third of my main series chapter length. That sentence right there. I don't have time to figure out an entire fight scene and my head hurts from being sick, so tomorrow or the next day or whenever I have time. Meeting Velvet and a new girl, who is she? I'm keeping that a secret until she shows up.

Like I said, the naming for my character was intentional and it just so happened that I made the fan fiction feature them. There will be some running jokes involving Rose and some more involving Sorey and Vanessa. I've set up clues to what's to come, so maybe read into them, maybe not. Either way, the Berseria arc is going smoothly.)


	10. Chapter 10

Velvet stood with her guard up, she had her sword to her side and her claw ready for a fight. Arthur and Zaveid stood at the front while Celica stood in the back. It was Velvet who made the first move, she jumped forward and went to slash her claw right down on Arthur. He barely blocked it, and with his strength, he pushed her away. Celica caused an arte that acted as a temporary barrier between them and Velvet while Zaveid used his pendulum to grab onto Velvet's right arm once the barrier was down.

Arthur took the opportunity to slam his sword down on the ground to create icicles that shot from the ground. He jumped back and summoned arrows made of ice to distract Velvet while Zaveid went in. The seraph struck Velvet with melee attacks before she hit him back with her claw, sending him flying. Celica summoned a tornado and Arthur created ice which made a storm.

Velvet dug her claw into the ground to remain stable and went straight for Arthur despite the tornado in her way. She pushed through, and to Arthur's surprise, landed right in front of him. It was a series of blades clashing from then. Her skills were faster than expected and her claw only made it hard for him to block. When he thought she didn't have anything else to use, she revealed a blade on her shoe that sliced through his defenses when he least expected it.

He kept his sword raised when he released a power that stunned Velvet. It was the silver flame. Velvet stood in shock, she backed up a bit then continued. Celica went in to protect Arthur and used an arte to gain some distance between her and Velvet. She created a gust of wind and with Zaveid's help, gained a boost to her shield once Velvet broke through. Velvet went head on into battle with Celica, while Celica tried to keep her distance, Velvet just broke through again and again to land a few hits. She was fast and strong, her abilities transcended the two, even Zaveid had trouble with her.

Suddenly, a voice came from the distance. It was a woman who yelled Velvet's name, and behind her, the rest of the party. Velvet stopped and looked at the woman, she immediately put her guard down and her arm became bandaged again.

"Eleanor, what are you doing here?" Velvet asked.

"Stopping you from doing something reckless." Eleanor said. Eleanor explained that she met the party while they were doing research, she told Velvet that the two who she fought against were not the same as the ones they knew.

"What about the others? Phi, Magilou, Rokurou, Eizen, where are they?"

"Velvet, it's been years since we went on that journey."

"That's impossible."

"It's not," Arthur chimed in. "We may not have an explanation, but we do need to stop fighting."

"And why is that?" Velvet merely glared at him.

"Because we're all allies here." Vanessa spoke up as well.

"Velvet" that time it was Sorey. "I know it must be confusing, that's why we need to figure it out together. Arthur and Celica have been with us for a while and haven't done anything."

Velvet stood in confusion, how was it that she and Eleanor were there? How was it that they had different recollections of their journey? And where were the others of their group? All those questions Velvet had spinning in her head, and none she knew an answer to. She had heard about Arthur and Celica's journey with Sorey and the others, she heard about Sorey's journey as a Shepherd, and somewhat knew Vanessa's story.

She leaned against the wall and remained in thought while the others spoke with Eleanor. Even she was surprised of what had become of Eizen and worried for the others. She also had her own secrets, she kept the fate of Laphicet a secret from Velvet, knowing Velvet would go out immediately to find him. She told Sorey and his friends to also stay quiet until the time was right.

"Eleanor," Arthur began.

"Yes?" Eleanor replied.

"This Artorius you've been mentioning, why is it that Velvet hated him?"

"He was her brother in law, until he killed her brother."

"The first Shepherd." Sorey looked at Eleanor with curiosity.

"He killed Velvet's younger brother to gain control of the world, his plan was to wipe all emotions from humans, to stop malevolence."

"That's why she had such feelings towards Arthur," Celica said. "She saw her brother in law in Arthur."

"Perhaps."

"It still doesn't make sense" Vanessa said. "Arthur and her brother are two different people!"

"That may be the case. But they do have the same feeling." Eleanor then stopped. "Arthur, why did you name your malak, I mean seraph, 'Celica'?"

"It was the name of an old friend of mine when I was a child." Arthur responded. "I didn't think it had any connection to Velvet's big sister."

"Do you think that you knew Velvet's family when you were young?" Mikleo asked.

"I was too young to even remember." Arthur lied, then he whispered to himself. "It's true our worlds are so similar, but why is it that even our names are the same?"

(And that's all for today, it's a shorter chapter with just the fight scene and the aftermath. Introducing Velvet and Eleanor, to those who got that it was Eleanor last chapter, you get a cookie. I did make it obvious.

We'll be heading into Eizen's part with a dragon fight and after that, a fun scene I have planned with Vanessa. Please do check her out, I'll ask if I can use a dress design for her for that fun scene. Thanks for reading, and yes, I am very self-aware that Wonders of Mysteria is like Zestiria and Berseria, I did that because I like the games.)


	11. Chapter 11

Arthur leaned against the wall and thought about his next move. They were to head to Rayfalke Spiritcrest the next day and see what they could do about Eizen. Velvet and Eleanor sat at the table with Sorey and Mikleo to catch up on what they had missed the past few days while Vanessa read through her book with Lailah trying to catch a peak at the inside before the girl closed the book every time she saw Lailah there.

It was an interesting group to say the least, even the time since Sorey's first adventure and then seemed like eons to those who were involved. Alisha and Rose joked about their past and seemed to have fun all the way. Arthur just looked off to the distance, alone and away from the others. The malevolence levels were increasing with every day, even with Velvet around, a being who could absorb malevolence, it was too much.

"What's on your mind Arthur?" Sorey approached him.

"The malevolence is growing, what should we do about it?" Arthur kept his eyes to the ground.

"Cheer up, we'll find a way to stop it."

"You're always so enthusiastic Sorey, I like that about you."

"Mikleo does say it gets me trouble."

"It can, so stay aware of that."

Arthur stood up straight and headed to the table to join the others once he had a plan. If Sorey alone wasn't enough to purify a dragon, then maybe him and Arthur were. Arthur was given the powers of the silver flame and Celica could enhance his abilities. Sorey and Lailah looked to one another, since Sorey was still the Shepherd, he had his powers in tact, so was on the same level of Arthur. Since it was too risky to take a big group out, they planned on six of them to go. Arthur, Celica, Sorey and Lailah were a must, and since Velvet had the power to absorb malevolence, she offered to go as well.

Vanessa also volunteered to go, she had abilities of her own that would be helpful. The six agreed to head out in the morning and see what they could together. Sorey was hopeful that their plan was going to work, it didn't hurt to try after all.

Vanessa sat outside the inn and stared at the moon and stars in the night sky. She held tightly onto her book as a small purple feather fell out of it when she was startled by something. It was Sorey, he was worried about her being alone and thought she could use some company. He sat next to her and stared at the same stars she did. It was a clear sky, not a cloud in sight. Vanessa then looked at Sorey, he looked back at her and the two laughed.

For Vanessa, it had been a while since she went on a journey of her own, she almost forgot how it felt to travel with others and fight monsters. She laid down on the grass with her book on her stomach and closed her eyes a bit. The small breeze felt nice and refreshing. Sorey picked up the little feather that came from Vanessa's book, it shone in the moonlight and he looked at Vanessa. She seemed so calm in that moment, like there was nothing wrong in the world.

(It's another preparation chapter, this time, Vanessa will be in the party fighting. I'm talking to nee san about her skills and artes to get the character perfectly done. Some planning and catching up on the characters part with a bit of romance. Until next time.)


	12. Chapter 12

Arthur unsheathed his sword in response to the hellions that went after them. Celica and Lailah stood in defense at the back of the group while Sorey, Arthur, Velvet and Vanessa stood in the front lines. Arthur sliced through a hellion that got too close to Lailah while she casted an arte. With Celica's help, the two created a tornado of fire that wiped out the first wave of monsters. Velvet continued ahead without the others and made her way to a small shrine. It was a place where the humans gave gifts to the seraphim, and the place where Edna put reminders of those who died from Eizen's attacks.

The group looked up to the top of the mountain, it was covered in malevolence and an eerie sound could be heard from the bottom. Celica hid behind Arthur and held onto his arm once they were safe to walk up the mountain without their weapons out. The scene itself scared Celica, she was new at fighting and didn't have the experience others of her kind did when facing malevolence.

Once again, the group were met by hellions. There was more than the last time, so the group spit up to fight the horde. Sorey cut through some and used the silver flame to purify them while Lailah supported him. Arthur followed in Sorey's techniques with his own silver flame as Celica used her wind artes to keep the hellions around her at bay. Velvet quickly moved around and with her weaponry at hand, destroyed the hellions around her with ease. Her claw and blades made it easy for her to maneuver and she used her claw to absorb the malevolence. Vanessa had her retractable halberd that she swung to take out the hellions in sight. It was a heavy weapon, so it took much of her strength just to swing, which made her the opposite of Velvet.

The group took out the hellions and reached the top of the mountain. There, the dragon Eizen stood on top. His domain weakened Lailah and Celica and made it hard for Arthur and Vanessa to fight due to its intensity. Sorey and Velvet took the lead for that fight. Velvet slammed her hand on the ground to absorb some of the malevolence to relieve the pressure and Sorey used the silver flame to clear out some of it as well.

"Are you ready Sorey?" Arthur asked.

"I'm ready," Sorey said.

First, they had to stop Eizen from moving around like he did. There was no straight shot and little quantities of the silver flame wasn't going to cut it. They did their best up against the dragon, Sorey even used his armatus with Lailah to knock Eizen down a bit so that Vanessa, Arthur and Velvet had a chance to get a few hits.

Arthur slammed his hand on the ground and covered Eizen's feet in a thick layer of ice, but he couldn't keep the dragon there forever. Sorey took the chance to purify Eizen, or at least try to. However, his power alone wasn't enough. Celica went by his side and boosted his power while Velvet absorbed the malevolence around them. Arthur held onto Sorey's shoulder and did the same as Celica did, with their combined power, the silver flame engulfed the entire area. When everything settled down, the group was surprised at the result.

"What is going on?" It was Eizen's voice, and Velvet recognized it right away.

"The Shepherd here purified you." Velvet responded.

"Velvet? What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story."

"And them?"

"These are the ones who helped Sorey, and this is Sorey," she pointed to the Shepherd.

"Let's get you to the inn, we have someone who would really be happy to see you." Arthur said.

"Hey, look who we brought back" Arthur was the first to return as he opened the door.

"Edna?" Eizen looked to see his little sister.

"Hello." She said.

"This is a bit underwhelming," Eleanor rubbed the back of her head.

"Eleanor, you're here too?"

"Who's he?" Rose asked when she and Alisha walked into the room.

"This is Eizen, Edna's big brother." Velvet pointed out.

"I see the resemblance..." Alisha tried to make small talk.

"Right," Edna walked out of the room.

"What's with that?" Sorey asked. "You'd think she'd be happy to see him."

"I think she is, maybe." Vanessa sighed.

"It's always been like with him," Velvet explained. "He's a reaper, a malak with the presence of bad luck wherever he goes. He wants to protect his little sister from the dangers he poses."

"Reaper? Malak?" Vanessa asked.

"Reaper, a being with bad luck tied to them, and I suppose a malak is what seraphim were called back in your days." He looked to Velvet.

"That's correct, if what we know about this time and our time, it's that the world has changed beyond our recognition." Velvet explained.

(If you play Tales of the Rays, then that's your explanation to why Eizen and Edna reacted the way they did. Most of the interactions will be based from Tales of the Rays since that's the latest game with the Zestiria and Berseria cast interacting. I'll add Crestoria based interactions when that games comes out.)


	13. Chapter 13

"Are you sure you're fine?" Arthur asked Eizen.

"I'm sure, don't worry about me Arthur." Eizen seemed to have a sad look on his face as he pondered.

"Well, I guess I'll head back."

"Let me ask you something Arthur."

"What is it?"

"Velvet and Eleanor are from the past, so why are they here?"

"That's a good question. I'm even wondering what Celica and I are doing here. Well, either way, good night Eizen."

A day had passed since Eizen's return, and all he had were questions. Eleanor pieced together what she knew and Sorey helped with the Celestial Records on hand. But nothing really solved any real questions. The history was straight forward, all but Arthur and Celica were familiar, not that they made it known. So, what really got them, was what to do next.

That was when Lailah spoke up, she suggested to travel to the Empyrean's Throne, a place where there might be answers and a place where the Empyrean Maotelus laid. Both Eleanor and Eizen looked at one another at the mention of that name. Even so, they kept their thoughts to themselves as the others talked through their plans.

"Who is Maotelus?" Celica asked.

"He's the fifth Empyrean, the one who controls the silver flame." Vanessa explained.

"On our journey," Mikleo spoke up. "He was corrupted by Heldalf, the Lord of Calamity at the time. Sorey purified both Heldalf and Maotelus."

"Maotelus should be back to normal," Lailah said. "He's able to feel the energy around the world, he would know if there was anything wrong."

"Then we'll talk to him," Velvet said.

"Are you sure?" Eleanor asked.

"I'm sure, we were brought together, and I want to know who this Maotelus being is."

"Velvet..."

"Don't worry about her Eleanor," Eizen whispered to her.

"In the morning then? Does that sound good?" Arthur looked to the others.

"Sounds good to me." Rose said.

(Another build up chapter, I'm tired. I wake up too early and go to bed too late. The Berseria arc is much longer than the Zestiria arc since time travel and Emphyreans have to do with the gang getting back to together.

Those of you who played Berseria, you know exactly where this is headed and who Maotelus is. After the scene with Maotelus I have a fun scene planned then onto the next character, two, who will be joining the party. This party is getting big. Sorry Edna and Zaveid fans, they'll get their parts in later, I can't write everyone into a scene. Especially with 12+ characters roaming around. Which is why my fight scenes break them into smaller groups.)


	14. Chapter 14

"This Maotelus, what kind of seraphim is he?" Velvet asked.

"He's ancient, existing during the times of calamities," Lailah explained.

"He has the power of the silver flame, it's how Sorey can purify hellions, and I'm guessing it's the same for Arthur as well." Vanessa looked to Arthur when she mentioned his name.

"Yes, something like that." Arthur responded.

Up the stairs to the Empyrean's Throne, to where Maotelus was after Heldalf was defeated and purified. Both Eleanor and Eizen were distant from the others, it was their knowledge of who Maotelus was that made them so. Eleanor closed her eyes and tried to imagine what Velvet would say if she knew what trouble they'd all be in. Velvet never took things lightly back on that journey, she had lashed out at times and even left their group when she was frustrated enough. Her emotions were more powerful than her attacks on the battlefield, so to think that her, a Lord of Calamity, would cause a scene, wasn't too farfetched.

Velvet focused on the path ahead and took the lead when they were right at the doorstep. She opened the door to see Maotelus, a dragon like being that glowed in a white light. Lailah then took charge, she explained to Maotelus what was going on, and without much hesitation, told him exactly who Velvet, Eleanor and Eizen were. More the former two since Eizen had lived through the years. Maotelus looked directly at Velvet and his presence that of gentleness and calm.

"Velvet," he said.

"That voice." Velvet stood in disbelief.

"What's wrong Velvet?" Arthur asked.

"Nothing, I thought I recognized his voice."

"Lord Maotelus," Arthur stood in front of Velvet. "As the fifth Empyrean and guardian of this world, you must know what's going on. How is it that Velvet and Eleanor are here? And why?"

"There is a rift in the time stream. Something or someone has brought upon this world a danger. I cannot sense who it is now, but in time, it will become clear." Maotelus said.

"Hold on, what does any of that mean?" Vanessa asked.

"It means that there's a person or thing that came into this world and is disrupting it." Arthur explained, then he thought about him and Celica, he was afraid that they were who Maotelus was speaking about.

"That makes sense, I guess."

"What can we do about its Lord Maotelus?"

"Go to the four earth pluses of this world, there, you will have to find a way to balance the energy inside." Maotelus then stopped. "Arthur, Celica."

"What is it Lord Maotelus?" Arthur asked.

"Stay for a while after the others leave. We'll need to talk."

Those words alone made Arthur and Celica afraid. Maotelus had wanted a personal meeting with the two, and Arthur knew it wasn't going to be good. The two stayed inside the throne room just as Maotelus asked and listened to what he had to say. Just as Arthur thought, the Empyrean knew that the two weren't like the others, they were from a different plane of existence. While the two planes, or worlds, were similar, their major differences kept them apart. Celica as a spirit was much different than the seraphim, and Arthur's silver flame was not like the one Sorey had.

They had slipped through a crack in space and time and ended up the world, and by a method of their world. It was never heard that others from another world came to that one, but in the world Arthur and Celica came from, it wasn't so unnatural. At that point in time, they had no way to return home and were told to continue their act of being native to the world. One misstep could mean another shift in the balance.

When they were finished, Arthur and Celica joined the curious group and avoided any talk of what they heard from Maotelus. There was one thing they did share, that the world was unbalanced, and needed some fixing. The group, all together, headed back to the inn.

There was something about him that was so familiar. Velvet thought. She recognized Maotelus, and in a way, felt like he knew her. She wondered if she was to meet him in her future, if she and her friends came across him. Eleanor and Eizen felt guilty for not telling Velvet who Maotelus was. They had full knowledge and could have shared it, but they didn't. They knew Velvet would be mad at them for not telling. But if she knew, what would she had done?

Back at the inn, the group split up and went off to take their own time. Arthur and Celica looked out to see the mountains and fields that covered the world. And out further, were the earth pluses, the places where the world was balanced through the flow of mana. If they were stuck there, it was only right for them to help.

"What are you two doing so far away?" Vanessa went up to them.

"Vanessa? Shouldn't you be asleep?" Arthur asked.

"Can't, I've been too stressed."

"If it's too much for you, you can leave."

"And leave you guys to go on a journey without me?"

"She's definitely more active than before," Celica chuckled.

"You guys are just as important to this team as any of us. So, I'm giving you this." Vanessa placed a purple feather in Arthur's hands.

"Huh? What's this for?" He asked.

"Good luck. Maotelus wanted to speak with you directly, so I'm guessing it wasn't good news."

"You know how to cheer a person up Vanessa."

"Thanks." Vanessa bowed and went back to the inn. She had a weight of her own on her shoulders. While she didn't show it, she had her own stresses in life. That was when Arthur had a plan, to help Vanessa the same way she helped them.

(And that's all for this chapter. I'm beyond tired.

Looks like the worlds are all coming together. And not in a nice bow tie. Why keep Velvet from knowing who Maotelus is? Because it's not his time to join the party, and she's a ball of chaos. What's this big plan that Arthur has? Well, unless you're one of the two people I told, then you'll have to wait. I must draw something before that story ends.

Earth pluses, Maotelus, Empyreans, what does it all mean?! If you played Berseria you'll know exactly what I have planned, hint, it has to do with the Berseria cast getting to together, and not just the protagonists.)


	15. Chapter 15

"I've really been thinking." Arthur said as he sat at the table.

"About?" Mikleo asked while leaning on the wall.

"Sorey and Vanessa seem to be getting along pretty well."

"Are you jealous of Sorey?"

"Eh?! You think I like Vanessa?!"

"From that reaction right there I'd say you do." Rose laughed as she watched Sorey and Vanessa play outside.

"No way! I have a girl I like back home. I just mean maybe we should do something to help them." Arthur sounded defensive.

"Like a date?" Celica asked.

"Like that, a secret date between the two to really get this relationship going."

"It sounds like a wonderful idea." Alisha clapped.

"Of course, you'd say that." Edna sat down across Arthur at the table.

"What are we talking about?" Velvet asked as she walked into the room with Eleanor.

"Arthur wants to get Sorey and Vanessa together for a date!" Celica said in excitement.

"On a date Celica." Arthur corrected her. "We're trying to get them together. Beyond the ruin nerd thing they have."

"I can help." Velvet suggested.

"Like you know anything about romance." Eleanor commented.

They had a plan, a surprise party. Mikleo, Zaveid, Eizen and Arthur would get Sorey ready while Rose, Alisha, Edna, Lailah, Celica, Velvet and Eleanor would get Vanessa ready. They'd make this a normal party until the time came to surprise them. Arthur then brought out two friendship bracelets he made to surprise Vanessa and Sorey with, in which Rose placed her hand on her forehead and sighed.

Velvet dragged Eleanor outside to find something, anything, better than what Arthur had in mind. The others then got prepared, they made plans for the outfits and the entire set up of the room, with the inn's permission of course.

"Arthur," Velvet approached Arthur when she and Eleanor returned.

"Something wrong Velvet?" Arthur asked.

"Your name, why is it 'Arthur'?"

"It's what my adoptive father named me when he found me."

"You're adopted?"

"That's right."

Arthur hadn't really told anyone before. Besides Celica, the group didn't know about his personal life. He wasn't closed off from the subject either, he just waited until he was asked. He was raised to serve the people and that they mattered more than he did. A lesson his adoptive father taught him.

His father, Stan Maxwell, was the governor of Aero Lumera, a kingdom within the world of Lumina. Stan found him when he was just a baby and raised him ever since then. Arthur told Velvet that he never knew his real mother or father and was ultimately fine with that. Only once did he ever consider looking for them or clues to what happened to them. In the end, he found nothing.

Velvet knew how that felt. She was raised by her older sister, Celica, with her younger brother at her side. When Celica died, she was left with her brother and Artorius, until, Artorius killed her brother. The anger on Velvet's face was clear, and the malevolence surrounding her only grew stronger. Arthur then placed his hand on her left hand, shocking her.

Arthur was surprisingly calm around her, even though he knew what she was, and what her arm was, he didn't seem to mind at all. That made her think of the boy who she was with. Laphicet. Who she hadn't seen throughout the entire journey so far? Not even the mention of his name from Eleanor or Eizen. Then again, it wasn't like they spoke about their other teammates either.

Velvet moved her arm away and went inside. She had enough for one day and wanted to check on the others. Arthur was just too nice of a person for her, and she knew since he was part of that time, that she'd probably never have anything close to a relationship with him.

(Welcome to slice of life, episode one. This will go on for another chapter or two before getting onto the real story. This is a character development chapter set, mostly for Vanessa so her OC and Sorey can have screen time together.

Edit time! Yes, added in some Arthur X Velvet, too bad he's not a Berseria OC or I'd totally go crazy. Still could probably. Fan art anyone? Arthur's canon crush is Celica, which, Wonders of Mysteria hasn't even started its second arc so don't be expecting to know what happens anytime soon between them. For this fan fiction, I can do whatever I want, so if I feel like it, and get help from Vanessa, Arthur X Velvet might become a thing.)


	16. Chapter 16

Arthur stood on top of a ladder and hung up ribbon on the curtains. Celica was right beneath him holding the ladder still, so he didn't fall if he took a wrong step. Velvet and Eleanor worked on decorations on the table while Lailah, Rose and Alisha worked with the food. Everything was set in place, even Zaveid had his own job with the rest to keep both Sorey and Vanessa separated. Zaveid and Eizen had Sorey down at some temples while Mikleo and Edna took Vanessa down to a nice waterfall where Mikleo showed off some of his artes and Edna made fun of him. It was a typical day for those two, they were completely unaware of what Arthur had planned, and that was perfect.

Arthur then got down from the ladder carefully and helped Celica move the ladder to its next position and worked from there. Soon enough, Celica and Velvet met eyes with one another. Celica, not paying attention, didn't notice when Arthur tried to get down and the ladder fell. Velvet was quick to catch him before he got hurt and the other side in relief. Velvet put Arthur down and got right back to work; she had noticed one thing though, behind her back, she felt Celica's cold stare go right through her. Celica wasn't happy.

The two had it hard going forward. Whenever Arthur needed something, Celica went right to him while Velvet only got irritated. It wasn't until Celica was called into the kitchen to help with the baking as Alisha burned some of the cookies, that she had to leave. To her dismay, Velvet took that chance to talk to him.

"Your malakim, seraphim I mean, seems pretty upset." Velvet pointed out.

"She's always been like that, ever since we met, she's always been clingy." Arthur explained with a sigh on his face. "She gets all fussy when she sees other girls with me."

"You don't think she likes you? Do you?"

"It may be that, she's hard to read." Then Arthur spoke to himself. "A spirit like her is just so strange. I wish I had the answer to her behavior."

"Arthur?"

"Don't take it personally, Vel."

"Vel?"

"I thought it would be cute."

"Arthur," Eleanor spoke up. "You're not seriously considering a relationship with her, are you?"

"With Velvet? We're just friends." Arthur staggered.

"Good."

"What's going on?" Celica asked.

"She doesn't think a daemon and a human can be together." Velvet said a bit too calmly. "Not that it matters what she thinks."

"You're right about that."

Even in Lumina, daemons and humans were just as separated as humans and spirits were, but instead of having a good relationship, there was only hatred between the two. Humans hunted down daemons while daemons hunted down humans. There was no winning between the two, even if it started a war, there would be no winners. However, Velvet wasn't like the daemons of Lumina. She had a sense of justice and didn't just kill for sport or food; she even fought her own kind. Perhaps it was because she was a therion, a type of daemon in that world who devoured malevolence as a food source. A type of daemon didn't exist on Lumina.

Although there were some who had their humanity intact, they eventually lost it as time went on. They forgot who they were, and who their friends and family were. That was the sad part of becoming a daemon on Lumina, there was no happy ending. That was where Velvet was different, according to Eleanor and Eizen, she didn't have to die at the end of her journey. She continued to live and made peace with herself. Arthur liked that about her.

The evening came and it was almost time to head to bed. They had wanted to get everything done in one day, but it wasn't going to happen. They had contacted the others through a messenger to ask the others to stay in a different inn. Eizen pointed out the nearest one to the temple, while Mikleo and Edna fought over where they should go. Hopefully, they had it under control.

"Aren't you tired?" Velvet asked Arthur.

"A bit." He responded.

"You should rest."

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow, okay Vel?"

"I'll see you tomorrow."

(More Arthur X Velvet; I need to get that dress design done before the next chapter. That'll be the last of this section, first dressing scene then the party itself. Next, a Berseria team member will be joining and Arthur's birthday is coming up. I don't have dates; the characters of my series celebrate whenever it's their birthday and whenever I want to have a fun scene. Please don't get the wrong idea, Wonders of Mysteria is only influenced by inspiration and is not a fan fiction itself. The story and characters are not related to Berseria in any way beyond references.

I love you Vanessa. Don't kill me, there's not much going on with most of the party members in this chapter since I felt guilty for not working on it for a while and wanted to get something out. Back to KH drawings.)


	17. Chapter 17

"What's going on guys? Come on!" Sorey asked as he was measured and handed a suit by Arthur.

"We need you to put this on Sorey." Arthur asked.

Arthur wasn't the only one to suggest outfits to Sorey. Eizen held up a pirate's uniform and got a small scolding from Arthur. Then Mikleo picked up a suit and handed it to Sorey. It was perfect for Sorey and the party they had planned.

Vanessa wasn't in any different of a situation. She was caught between Eleanor, who wanted a fancy dress, and Velvet, who preferred a less frilly dress. Celica even voiced her opinion, which only showed she had little knowledge in dresses.

"Is this really necessary?" Vanessa asked.

"Of course, it is, you have to look your best." Celica accidentally said.

"For what?"

"For-"

"Celica!" Velvet immediately put her hand over Celica's mouth.

"It's a secret!" Eleanor covered it up quickly.

The girls had put Vanessa in many dresses before finding the right one. The first had too many beads, the second didn't have enough color, and the third had way too ribbons on for any of their likening. Velvet explained that a dress had to be in style with its accessories. Too much and it would be too flashy, while too little meant not fancy enough.

"Seriously! What is this about?" Vanessa had enough and nearly looked like she was about to explode.

"Look at the sky, isn't it lovely?" Lailah said in her usual way to avoid talking about a certain subject.

"What?"

The party all got together, without Vanessa and Sorey, and had put together a party. They turned off the lights and individually introduced Vanessa and Sorey in the room. Celica covered Vanessa's eyes as she sat Vanessa down at a table as Mikleo did the same to Sorey. They moved their hands and made a run for it before they could be stopped.

"Hey Vanessa." Sorey was the first to start.

"Hi." Vanessa responded.

"You look nice."

"So, do you. Did Mikleo pick that out?"

"He did, typical Mikleo."

"I guess so..."

The two started off slowly then the conversation evolved into ruins and hobbies. Vanessa, like Sorey, was a ruins fan. Maybe a bit too much. She talked about the ruins she had visited, some that Sorey had never of. Sorey became interested in Vanessa's travels, and Vanessa became interested in Sorey's travels.

Soon enough, the two hit it off. They were laughing and sharing stories. All through the night, Vanessa had a smile on her face and so did Sorey. Velvet then entered the room and put a tray on the table. It was her signature quiche that she had Edna and Lailah help her with. With some Eleanor input.

The two were having so much fun, it made Celica jealous. She looked at Arthur, who watched Velvet from a distance, and got the perfect idea. She got Eleanor's attention and they made a deal.

Soon, it was time that the rest of the party joined in. They turned in some dance lights and entered in a group. They had picked outfits of their own to wear for the dance. Vanessa looked to Sorey and he looked at her, they had the suspicion the others oversaw the party.

Arthur approached Velvet, but not before Celica grabbed onto his arm. He had to wave her off which made her pout and head over to Zaveid. She reluctantly asked him for a dance as Arthur asked Velvet.

The biggest surprise of the night was the gift Velvet and Eleanor got for Vanessa and Sorey, it was their party. It was good luck apple, the same kind a friend had given to her and her friends in their journey. She said it was good luck for their future. In any case, it was probably a better idea than what Arthur had in mind.

"I think we did well." Velvet said as she and the others sat down at their own table.

"What's next?" Arthur asked.

"For what?" Edna asked in response.

"Well, we still have so many questions that need answering."

"Like how Velvet and Eleanor are here?" Lailah presumed.

"Correct." Then Arthur thought about why he and Celica were summoned to that world.

"We can figure that out tomorrow." Zaveid laid back on the chair.

"I do wonder who else is here." Eleanor crossed her arms. "If Velvet and I are here, then Magilou, Rokurou and-"

"Laphicet." Velvet interrupted Eleanor.

"There may be a chance." Lailah said. "What do you think Arthur?"

"Huh?" Arthur was in deep thought when Lailah had asked. "Well, I don't know."

Arthur thought about what Maotelus had told him and Celica. He wondered what else the Empyrean knew.

(I don't know how to end this. I just got done doing some art for DA only and am just reading over the chapters for my main series. If you can see, I've somewhat revived Mysteria X RD. It's just a spin off that covers more about the world since we didn't do much of that.

I'll continue development on my main series and see if I can get another chapter done from one of the stories that are in progress. For now, the date scene between Vanessa and Sorey, which I'm not good at romance, please don't kill me. Next, one of the Berseria party members join, and Arthur's birthday. I'm debating on which girl Arthur will have a relationship in this story. In Wonders of Mysteria it is Celica, but that can change to Velvet just in this story.)


	18. Chapter 18

"That was successful evening," Rose said as she stretched.

"Agreed." Eleanor said.

The party cleaned up the mess once the sun began to rise and had their own share of fun. Celiac threw some of the paper at Arthur which made a bigger mess and he threw back some of the confetti. Velvet eventually had to split them up since they were making a mess instead of cleaning it up. Arthur sighed and helped Eleanor while Celica made a huff and went to Alisha's aid. Of course, they had locked Vanessa and Sorey outside to keep them from causing problems, so they chased each other's until they were out of breath.

"Well; with that over with. There's something going on Titania." Velvet said once they were done. "Arthur, Celica and I have been hearing some rumors."

Titania, the prison island where Velvet was kept for years after she turned into a daemon. The mention of that place brought back memories, her brother, her brother-in-law, her sister, all who were connected to that one scarlet night. She didn't want to go back, but with the rest of the party awake, they all agreed to check it out. If it was what Velvet thought, it was going to be too dangerous for anyone else.

A boat ride to Titania wasn't easy to get, the party had to get one of their own since the people either didn't know where it was, or that it even existed. Rose paid for a boat with the gald she gained from selling merchandise and told Arthur he owed her. To which he sighed and said he would when got the chance to get some half of his own.

Titania itself was a dark abandoned place, it was falling apart and covered in vines. The party were hesitant to enter. Until Velvet and Rokurou pushed through inside. To them, it was their old home. They checked out what was new and headed to their old cells. Velvet's cell went underground, or it did before it was flooded, and Rokurou's cell was dusty and filled with cobwebs.

The entire party explored the premise to see what was wrong, the reports were vague and only stated that a crashing noise could be heard from inside. Arthur, with Celica by his side, went with Sorey, Mikleo and Vanessa to explore the South while the others took the North, West and East.

Sorey checked out the entire area until Celica went to a switch and pulled it. She didn't see what it was connected to and had sent Sorey to the bottom level which was filled with water. Luckily the water had broken his fall.

"Sorey, are you alright?" Arthur shouted from above.

"I'm fine, I think there's a door here, I'll see if I can meet you guys later!" Sorey shouted back.

"Be careful!" Vanessa said as Sorey made his way through the flooded room.

"Be more careful Celica!" Arthur scolded his partner.

"Sorry."

"Let's continue on, Sorey will be waiting for us." Mikleo suggested.

"Alright." Arthur resounded.

The next room was only filled with empty cell doors and hanging cobwebs. It was dark and spooky, like a haunted house. The four carefully made their way to a room that was circular and with many hallways that were too dark to see where they went.

Arthur stayed in front while Celica, Mikleo and Vanessa waited for his signal to move forwards. Unfortunately, when he thought it was safe, he was slammed against the wall by a hellion. It was a spider hellion, about three times their size. Vanessa screamed which alarmed it to her position and Mikleo made his attack before it got to her. She got over it in time and joined him. Her halberd struck through one of the hellion's legs and made her back up as it grossed her out and she said "I hate spiders" repeatedly.

Arthur pushed her back as she was distracted and made his own attack. He stabbed his sword into the ground to freeze the hellion in place before he slammed it against the hellion's body to push it back. It hit the wall and landed on its back, making an opening for the four to attack with ease. Celica summoned a barrage of wind artes to keep the hellion down as the rest made short work of it with their own weapons.

They eventually stopped and rested once they were sure it was finished and moved on. They were tired, so another battle would just prove to be more difficult. And to no surprise, they were attached again. A scorpion hellion slept at the end of the room and it woke up when it heard footsteps. It was much faster and attacked more than the last hellion did, which made it even harder.

Vanessa jumped above the hellion to slam her halberd on it with all her strength as Mikleo attacked from afar. Celica held on to Arthur's hand, and together, they created a storm of ice and wind. Both Vanessa and Mikleo were pushed back and lost their balance due to the attack, which was Arthur's fault as he didn't think through the consequences of using a chain arte.

The hellion had its sights on the two were down and went for a powerful attack. In response, Arthur quickly got in between, with the help of Celica's wind artes, to stop the hellion. He held his sword to the hellion's tail and pushed back with all his strength. He shoved it back but wasn't prepared for a counterattack. Using its tail, the hellion slashed him, breaking his sword and ripping through his clothes. Celica ran to his aid and once Vanessa and Mikleo were back up, they finished the job.

"Arthur, are you okay?" Mikleo asked.

"No, I don't think so." Arthur removed his hand from his wound to show it was still bleeding.

"It's not healing?"

"My healing artes can't really heal poison wounds." Celica said in a sad tone.

"We should get him to a doctor!" Vanessa said worryingly.

"There's no one here that can help him. We'll just have to hope he lasts until we get back to Lady Lake, or somewhere that has a doctor." Mikleo picked up Arthur's arm and hung it over his shoulder. "Let's find Sorey and the others. We can't do this without them."

The four went deeper and deeper into Titania's long hallways of jail cells. Since neither Mikleo nor Arthur could fight, it was up to Celica and Vanssa to charge into battle. The hellions were small and easily taken care of. That made things easier on them, as they didn't have to hide from any enemy that posed a threat.

Vanessa soon approached a door and opened it slowly. Water poured out of the cracks, so she kept it open just enough for the water to drain but not overwhelm them. Inside, there were footsteps, they sounded human, so Vanessa calmly held her halberd as she opened the door further. It was Sorey, he was dripping wet from the water he had to swim through, and thanks to Vanessa, was finally on the ground.

She put her weapon and her back and jumped onto Sorey to greet him. Finally, a familiar face. She, Celica and Mikleo caught Sorey up on the recent news. To which he replied that it would be best to find the others. He pointed to a hallway that lead down another dark path and said he thought he heard some activity from under the water. Maybe it was another group.

They all made their way both quickly and carefully down the hallway to see what was there. In a second, Sorey, who was in front, was met by a hard slam of another blade. He blocked it and realized who it was: Velvet. She jumped back and apologized; she, Eleanor and Zaveid had been surprise attacked multiple times which made them all suspicious of what went near them.

The three were filled in on the details and Velvet, with much concern for their teammate, suggested they leave immediately. The others could handle themselves and they needed to help Arthur before he succumbed further to the effects of the hellion's poison. She had some experience in medicine, due to her brother's condition and years of taking care of him, so she knew what to do. All she needed were supplies, which weren't in Titania.

Due to the extra help of Velvet, Eleanor and Zaveid, getting through the dungeon was much easier, especially with Velvet's knowledge of the layout from her own time in there. She then stopped the group as they approached a corridor. There was a loud banging on the walls, and it sounded like rocks were falling from the ceiling. She told Mikleo and Celica to stand by and keep Arthur out of sight as she and the others handled the threat. Until she said it was safe, they weren't allowed to go any farther.

Velvet, Eleanor, Zaveid, Sorey and Vanessa made their way closer to the next room and was as quiet as possible to not alert what was there. It was a headless horseman, it slammed itself on the walls to break through and made the ground shake as it did so. Velvet unsheathed her blade and made her attack straight for the hellion. She caught it off guard and took off some of its armor. Eleanor was next, she took her spear and hit the parts of the armor that Velvet had damaged to break off some more.

Zaveid stayed in the back while both Sorey and Vanessa joined the other two. Vanessa made a hard hit that broke through the hellion's defenses to leave it open for Sorey to make quick attacks. Zaveid shot his pendulum right at the hellion's armor and finally broke it. All that was left was the hellion itself. It ran around the room in circles which made it hard for the team to focus and attack.

Zaveid shot his pendulum again at the horse's feet to stop it in its tracks and the hellion fell to its side. That made it easier to attack and the five didn't hesitate to take it down.

"Not bad at all." A voice rang from the ceiling. "I've been trying to take that thing down for days."

"Who's there?" Velvet asked.

"The name's Magillanica Lou Mayvin but call me Magilou." Magilou said as she jumped down.

"You're the storyteller in the Celestial Records!" Vanessa recognized the woman.

"That's right! Lady Magilou is back!" Her side kick Bienfu said.

"Last I remember, you two went off without telling anyone and were never heard from again." Zavied commented.

"What happened to you? Weren't you wearing a jacket when we last talked?" Magilou asked.

"A guy needs to change his clothes every so often."

"Hold on, what exactly are you to live for so long?" Sorey asked.

"Miss Magilou is a witch!" Bienfu responded as Magilou made a victory pose.

"I can extend my age to beyond the span of humans." She continued.

"So that explains you and Eizen." Velvet went into her thinking position.

"Velvet! What are you doing here?"

"It's best not to ask. We don't know either." Eleanor sighed.

"You too Eleanor?!"

"Miss Eleanor!" Bienfu hugged Eleanor in the best way he could until she pushed him back.

"I'm guessing you're all old friends." Vanessa said.

"Something like that." Velvet sighed.

"He's not looking so good." Magilou said as she looked at Arthur.

"We know that." Mikleo said as he picked Arthur up again.

"We're leaving anyways. We got rid of the hellion that was causing a ruckus." Velvet said.

"So, that's what you were talking about?" Vanessa asked.

"That and the other hellions around it."

"This place is a total wreck, who'd want to come here to stay anyways. It's a prison." Celica said.

"Right. Let's get back up and see if the others are waiting for us."

"Take us with you!" Magilou's words surprised them all from who loudly she spoke. "I've been stuck here for days because of that hellion! Come on, take a witch and her normin with you!"

"Fine, you can come along." Velvet didn't even try to fight back.

"We're going on another journey!" Bienfu said happily.

"This again..." Eleanor put her hand on her forehead.

"Come on guys, let's go." Mikleo got them all to come back to reality.

(Well that took five days to write. Many battle scenes, the exploration of Titania and Magilou and Bienfu join. Who's next? Rokurou of course. Laphicet joining starts off the Phoenix arc, which will maybe be shorter than the Berseria arc, I don't know. I'm rolling with what I write. The final arc is going to be hell to write since I don't have it planned out. As I've said before; I'm doing whatever I want and writing as I go. The entire Titania dungeon is basically an idea I got from playing FFXV. That is a fun game.

Until next time.)


	19. Chapter 19

"From how I see it, the best bet is to wait for the others to come back to the meeting spot. You did set up a meeting spot, right?" Magilou asked.

"Uh." Vanessa started. "No."

"You've got to be kidding me! How are we supposed to get out of here now?"

"Let's find our own way out for now." Velvet suggested. "We don't exactly have all day."

"Velvet's right, we don't know how long Arthur will last without help." Celica said.

"We should head back to the surface," Eleanor suggested.

The group headed back out with Zavied and Mikleo staying inside to find the others. Just when they thought it was over, the rain began to pour down on them. It was a thunderstorm, and bad one at that. The timing couldn't have been any worse, as it was then that the rest of party made it out. They had no choice but to set out in that weather. Titania was the last place they wanted to be, and it was the last place they would find anything to help Arthur.

The storm made it hard to traverse the waters and without a compass, Eizen didn't know where they were going. He eventually crashed the ship into lans and couldn't get it anywhere else. The storm tattered the sails and the land broke the bottom of the ship, making it sink. The party got off and looked around, there were trees everywhere and a pathway; their only hope was to follow the path and pray it led somewhere other than the middle of nowhere.

Velvet lead the group and was the first the see where they were. The rain hadn't let up, so it was hard to see, but beyond the mist was a familiar house. She opened it up and saw that nothing had changed. It was her home, which meant they were in Aball. She looked through the medicine drawers to find everything was in place from how she remembered it and even the scarfs she and her old friend made were intact. Eleanor looked around in shock and even Magilou was stunned. It was like time hadn't ticked a moment after she left the house.

Velvet went into her brother's room to see it was in perfect condition.

"Velvet?" A familiar voice rang from just outside the room.

"Is that you?" Another voice.

Velvet turned around and saw her sister and brother watching her. She approached them; it had to be an illusion; she knew it had to be. They died years ago. Then again, Eleanor should have died years ago, and she was also there.

"You brought guests?" Her older asked. "Oh Velvet, I do wish you tell me these things."

"Velvet hasn't been feeling good remember. She probably just forgot." Her brother said.

"Please introduce me to your friends."

Velvet snapped out of her shock and introduced her friends to her family. All except for the seraphim and Celica. Her sister was Celica Crowe and her brother were Laphicet Crowe. Her sister saw Arthur with Sorey, since she couldn't see Mikleo Sorey took him, and offered to help. Unlike Velvet, she was a gentle and sweet woman. She was what Velvet could have become if not for the incident. When asked, Crowe didn't seem to know who Artorius was or what he did. Even Laphi had no knowledge of it.

Crowe asked Velvet to join her in the kitchen and the two made up some food for the guests. As a test to see if it was real or not, Velvet tasted the food her and her sister made. There was no taste. But she couldn't let her sister know so pretended it was good. Crowe smiled and brought out the food. She sat down with the others and started a lively chat. She said that she and Laphi had to take care of Velvet for years, according to their version of Velvet, she was the one who was sick and always had to be in the house.

Eleanor excused herself from the table and grabbed Velvet with her. There was something deeply wrong with that explanation. It was Laphi who had the disease and Velvet who always took care of him after Crowe died. It had to be a trick. Velvet grabbed onto Eleanor's arm before the girl went to confront the two, she wanted one day to see if they were really the people, they said they were. Eleanor knew it was an excuse to be with them again, so let it go. They returned to the table and said it was just "girl talk" and continued to speak with Crowe and Laphi.

Laphi said that one day, he wanted to take Velvet out on an adventure, to see the world. But since she was always at home and he was too young, he couldn't. He was happy to see Velvet out and about and asked to go with her and the party to wherever they were going. They all said they would think about it and once dinner was over, they congregated in Velvet's room.

Velvet was the most skeptical of Crowe and Laphi, since she knew them the best. She asked Magilou if it was a magic trick and the witch shook her head. No magic or arte was present. At least that she knew of. Mikleo wondered if it was same power that brought Velvet and Eleanor to their time. Perhaps they were from a different version of the world. A time where Crowe never met Arthur and the crimson moon never existed.

(Well that's all for today, I wanted to get something out for you guys who like my fan fiction. This is still the Berseria arc and unfortunately, we won't get answers until the final arc. Rokurou joins next chapter, then Laphicet, not her brother, and Vanessa's arc starts. This has been a long arc, I guess I'm more into Berseria than Zestirira. Let's blame Zestiria's awful camera during battle. Anyways, hope you like these stories, check out my original series if you're interested in other work I've done and my DA for art and updates. Love you guys.

Also, you can theorize what's going to happen in the comments. I do have a plan for this so I want to see who can get it right.)


	20. Chapter 20

(Note here guys! If you're wondering why I'm calling Celica Crowe by her last name, it's because there are two characters of the same name and I typically go by last name basis in real life if this happens. Because Celica (from Wonders of Mysteria) is a spirit she doesn't have a last name, so she gets to be called "Celica" while Velvet's sister is called "Crowe." This is also why I call Artorius "Velvet's brother in law" instead of his name. I could use his last name or use his name since it's a variation of "Arthur" but he's not important so he gets no attention.)

Crowe greeted the party with a warm "good morning" when the sun rose. She was ecstatic to find Velvet had gotten up without help, which made Velvet somewhat uncomfortable. Velvet shook it off and met the others in the dining room where Laphi was also present. Magilou leaned on the wall with her arms crossed and asked to talk to Velvet in private. Velvet agreed and the two went off.

Celica was curious so followed them outside where she heard the two talk about their journey. Specially, they talked about an event that was just like the one they were in. But things were different. There was no one else around, it was just Crowe and Laphi. Along with the strange feeling she had, Magilou was uncertain. She glanced at the distance and said there was "something off."

Celica headed back inside to hear Sorey, Vanessa and Crowe talking about ruins. Crowe said there was one nearby that looked ancient. Both Sorey and Vanessa got excited to hear about it and before they took off, Eleanor stopped them. They needed a plan before they went out ruin hunting. Arthur was in bed sick so some had to stay with him while others could go and see the ruins.

Mikleo, Edna, Zaveid, Lailah, Eizen, Alisha and Rose agreed to stay while Sorey, Vanessa, Eleanor, Magilou, Velvet, and Celica were to head out. Crowe and Laphi insisted that Velvet stayed behind, but she fought back and said that Sorey and Vanessa would get themselves in a world of trouble if she didn't go. They let her go with waves goodbye, then Crowe whispered something to Laphi and he nodded.

"These ruins are amazing! Look at them! They really are ancient!" Sorey was amazed by the ruins. On the outside, it was a grouping of pillars that surrounded a large circular tower with an entrance to go inside where the ruins went underground.

"This is strange." Velvet interrupted Sorey's glorifying of the ruins.

"Let the kid have some fun." Magilou said.

"Just hold on for a second. This wasn't here before. I'd remember if a ruin like this was close by my village."

"Maybe it was just out of sight." Vanessa suggested.

"No, a tower this big and ancient, I would have known."

"Either way, let's head in. There might be something in here worth finding." Celica suggested.

"I like that thought!" Sorey exclaimed.

"Now there's three of them." Velvet sighed.

Deeper inside was a staircase that swirled down into a cavern. It felt like everything was going to fall apart; the walls were cracked and the stone stairs felt as if they were wood. It made exploring feel dangerous and when they finally reached the bottom, it was relief to feel the ground was solid. But that wasn't the end of their problems. The ruins went further outward. A door that had a long hallway and another room laid right in front of them. Celica was almost crying at how big it was.

No matter where they stepped, there seemed to be more and more to the ruins. Even finding their way out was going to be hell. There were also monsters at every turn, some normal hellions, others were much different. They looked like skeletons with metallic wings that dripped a black liquid. Without an end in sight, the party finally found a break when they cleared out a room and sat down. Eleanor wiped the sweat from her forehead as the others regained their strength slowly. Sorey did bring water and some snacks for them to help, which was nice.

"This never ends!" Vanessa complained.

"Regretting coming here huh?" Celica joked to lighten the mood.

"I didn't expect it to be this big." Eleanor sighed.

"Now I'm sure I would have known if this was here." Velvet was even tired.

"No kidding." Magilou looked around.

"It could be worse." Sorey stated.

"Shut up." Celica was completely done with the ruins.

The last room was worse than the many before it. A room with no doors to anywhere but back and three glowing symbols on the floor. "Well this sucks" was what Eleanor said when she saw the markings. She went over to the text that was engraved on the wall and tried to read it. The language was incomprehensible to her so asked Sorey and Vanessa to take a look. But even they didn't know. Celica checked it out and made out a few sentences. It told them to use the symbols, they would find themselves in a room full of powerful monsters and if they defeated each monster, another room would open up. If they defeated and fought the monster of that room, they would be rewarded.

"How can you read that?" Magilou asked.

"I don't know. The words just clicked in my head." Celica let out a chuckle.

"I wonder if it's a seraphim thing." Vanessa thought out loud.

"It doesn't matter now. We should focus on clearing these rooms and getting out of here."

"Wait, we don't know if this 'reward' is our ticket out." Velvet stopped Celica.

"It's this, or fight out way back out against all the hellions and whatever those other monsters are."

"She has a point." Eleanor said.

"Fine." Velvet gave up. "Come on Eleanor."

"Huh?"

"Well, three symbols, six of us, two for each one."

"Against powerful monsters?!" Sorey asked in panicked tone.

"We could go as a group to each one, but I'd rather getting out of here sooner than later."

"Vanessa and I will go then."

"And that leaves Celica with Magilou."

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Celica said.

Each of the pairs went over to the symbol they chose and were teleported to a room full of powerful monsters. Just as the text said would happen. Celica and Magilous were put up against many daemons, most of which they beat easily, but the last boss was tough. It was a giant snake like creature with the upper half of its body human and the lower half snake. It held large swords in its hands and went after the two.

Celica dodged the attack as Magilou used one of her cards to block it. With the monster distracted with Magilou, Celica went behind and began an arte. She summoned a tornado that picked up the rocks around them and threw them at the monster. Its attention turned to Celica as she used the wind to dodge attacks and aid Magilou. Magilou got the last hit when she summoned cards all around her and shot them at the monster as if they were bullets.

With the monster down, a symbol appeared on the floor mirroring the one they stood on to get into the room. It glowed with a green light to indicate the room was cleared. Magilou caught her breath before she stopped Celica.

"I gotta ask you something Celica."

"What is it?" Celica turned to face Magilou.

"Why is your name Celica?"

"Not This again. Arthur named me that when he found me."

"He found you?"

"It's that thing where a human is turned into a" she thought before she said the wrong word. "Seraphim after death."

"And What kind of guy is Arthur?"

"I know you're going to relate him to Velvet's brother in law, but he's nothing like that! He's really a sweet guy and he's always so helpful."

"One more."

"Hit me."

"Where are you from? You could read that text while no one else could. And I've lived long enough to read most texts in this world."

"That's something you should ask Arthur when he's better."

"I will."

The two stepped onto the symbol and found themselves back at the main room which made Magilou sigh. It wasn't too long before the others completed their rooms and returned, when they did, the middle of the area glowed with a diamond shape and rose to revealed another passageway. At the end was an elevator that lead down into the final room. However, it was empty. There was no one there and the atmosphere was dry and cold. The group looked around and found traces of a fight, which meant someone had gotten there before them.

Velvet investigated the area only to find an old book. She blew off the dust and opened it, the text was blurred and hard to read, but she did know one of their teammates who could read it. Since Celica read the previous text, hopefully she could read the book as well. Celica skimmed through the pages to find anything helpful, until she stopped at a page in the middle of the book. A page about a fallen angel named "Lucilius" and how he had been sealed away in the tower for his crimes. Celica looked to Sorey and Vanessa, but they both shook their heads. They hadn't heard that name before.

Celica kept skimming through the book when a voice called out. "Velvet?" To her, it was familiar as she didn't turn around quickly with her claw out. Rokurou Rangetsu stood behind them. He explained that he heard of the place and its monsters so went looking for a fight. Velvet stopped him and asked him what he was doing there, while he stood confused at first, she clarified with her story of what had happened before the group entered the tower. Rokurou didn't have an answer, like her and Eleanor, he just ended up there without really knowing time had past.

He said that he defeated the main boss of the room but couldn't find his way out so stayed for a few days. He pointed to the centerpiece which was slightly above the ground and they investigated it. With one touch from Celica, the centerpiece rose and glowed. It was a hollow diamond statue with an orb in the middle and gemstones around it. The group looked to Celica once more and she used an arte on it to get the orb spinning. She had read in the Requiem how to use the artifact and followed the instructions with Sorey holding the book. A bright light shone and suddenly the group, with Rokurou, were outside.

"What happened here?" Rose asked when she saw them laying on the ground.

"Crazy ruins" Celica barely made out the words.

"It's been crazy here too, I've been trying to keep Laphi from following you guys."

"What?!" Velvet exclaimed.

"He said he didn't want to be left behind."

"I don't know what to expect anymore."

"Let's go back, my head is spinning." Vanessa said.

(This was a crazy chapter to write, I don't normally do ruin exploration scenes so it's a new concept for me. Anyways, Final Fantasy XV, whoever knows what temple I'm using as a base gets a cookie. Also, we are finally going to be done with this arc, two more to go, oh boy. Thank you to everyone supporting me and all my stories, this fan fiction and my original series. It means a lot to know you guys are enjoying my writing.

And one more thing before I end this chapter, Lucilius, who is he? Well, he's an original character to the fan fiction story so no need to look up anything. I don't want to make people research something to understand a character or such that I include. But, if you do want to, Wonders of Mysteria is where Arthur and Celica come from. They haven't been introduced yet so no need to go and try to find them. Everything will be answered in the future. And since Vanessa is an OC, her entire character will be explored, unlike Arthur and Celica who only get parts of their character explored.

Another edit. I forgot Alisha was there too. She'll have more of a role in the next chapters so I don't forget again.)


	21. Chapter 21

Regrouped, the entire party listened to the story about what happened in the tower. Mikleo was interested in the book Celica had so asked to see it, when he opened it, he found that the words were in a completely different language than he'd ever seen before, something that wasn't a surprise to the others. Magilou just remained seated, but the expression on her face told them that something was on her mind.

Celica took back the book and read some of the pages to the group. One sentence intrigued Sorey: "the fallen angel was once the shining star but fell when power consumed him. The lords gave him a second chance to redeem himself, to which he manipulated them into giving him the power he needed to fill the world with hate."

"This isn't anything like the Celestial Record." Sorey exclaimed.

"No, it's not." Velvet agreed.

"They call him an angel," Vanessa was thinking out loud again. "I wonder if it's anything like the creatures of my book."

"Does your book have a passage about this 'fallen angel'?"

"Not exactly, but some of the pages are worn and the text is hard to read."

"Then we're at square one." Rose sighed.

"You all are worried." Crowe saw their expressions and was concerned. She had walked in to see them all around a book and an empty seat. "What are you doing?"

"That's right" Sorey whispered. "She can't see seraphim."

"This is just something we don't get to see every day." Vanessa said.

Vanessa stood up and left the room. Outside, where it was still pouring, she stood under the hood of the house and opened her book. She looked through it repeatedly only to find nothing about a "fallen angel." She closed the book and let out a deep sigh. She put the book back in her bag and entered the house. At that time, Edna and Zaveid were fighting, she was sitting at the table with her feet on the table and Zaveid was laying on it.

Apparently, Zaveid tried to ask Celica out and she slapped him. That went into Eizen's power making him trip over a chair, hit the table and cause a plate to fall on him. He then got up and was shoved on the table by Edna. Mikleo had his hand over his face and Sorey wasn't entirely sure what to do. Velvet and Eleanor were staring at the scene and Magilou held up a card as she examined Zaveid to see if he was okay. The others had gone out to cool off and in Rokurou's case, do some sparing with the ones who had the energy to fight.

Vanessa shivered, those few minutes outside might have given her a cold. Sorey took off his cloak and wrapped it around her as he led her to the couch. Crowe followed them, medicine in hand, just in case they needed help.

Yet another day went by and the party gathered around the table. To their surprise, Arthur was back, he joined them and was met by some confused glances. He was out for a good three days. He said he felt fine and thanks to Crowe's help, was up and running again. Vanessa was also back to shape with some help, she really shouldn't have been outside without proper clothing. It was cold and raining and didn't look like it was about to give up.

"What am I looking at?" He asked when Celica gave him the book that was found in the tower.

"It's an ancient book of sorts." Edna replied.

"It seems only Lady Celica can read it." Alisha said.

"Actually," Arthur started. "I can read it."

"How?!" Mikleo asked as if in a panic.

"Even I couldn't read it." Magilou chipped in.

"It's a language my family was taught." Arthur set the book down.

"What is this language?" Velvet asked.

"I don't know the name, that was lost in the years. But I do know how to read it." He then pointed to a symbol. "Lucilius. This name is all over the place."

"We haven't been able to decipher who he is or was." Eizen said.

"Celica was having a hard time reading it so, we didn't get that far." Vanessa put her hand on her head.

"I'll read through this. Maybe we'll find something that's important." Arthur took the book and went into another room.

"Is he really okay? He just got up and started working."

"He's fine." Crowe stepped in. "I'm quite good with medicine."

Crowe had a smile on her face as she and Laphi began talking with the human members of the group. The seraphim and Celica wandered outside as the rain had let up a bit. Arthur re-entered the room for Sorey to greet, Sorey told him not to acknowledge the seraphim as Crowe couldn't see them. Arthur nodded and set the book down on the table. There was a passage that bothered him. Half of it was what Celica already read out, but the other half was more disturbing than the first.

Lucilius was exiled from his home and left to fend for himself with no power or weapons. His wings were torn, and his body was sliced to pieces. He put himself back together again and again until the day he was fed up with it all. He stole back his power and used it to kill his family; he sent the world into an infinite cycle of destruction and abandoned it when he was done.

Velvet asked about the tower they found the book in, trying to shake off what she heard. Arthur said the tower was indeed the burial ground Lucilius was sealed in. One of his kind found him and for punishment of his crimes and he was trapped. Arthur turned the page to see the next had black ink all over it. Rose explained that Celica found it that way and tried to use the light to see through it but couldn't. Arthur sighed and went to the page after that.

The words made no sense without the context of the last page. It was a completely different story at that point. Someone had written all over it to hide something. He guessed it was Lucilius, since no one else was in there before the group arrived. Between the lines of the blocked page, there was something visible. The name "Ma'ano," Vanessa perked up when she heard the name.

She opened her book for the first time in front of them and turned to a page. She compared the writing to the one in the Requiem. The name was the same and the text looked similar. Arthur asked who Ma'ano was, and she explained it was a figure of hope and faith. Sorey was clueless about the deity and asked for more information. Vanessa's face turned red as she had just shown the book to them on accident. She had kept its contents a secret for some time and hadn't thought about it.

Velvet stopped Sorey from asking any more questions as the Requiem's information was already enough for then. Arthur closed the book and put it away. The rest of its contents wasn't needed at that time. Eleanor suggested they ask Maotelus to which the rest of the group agreed to. While Crowe and Laphi wanted to go, they weren't allowed to. Velvet told them it was too dangerous, and she didn't want them to get hurt. Crowe commented on how grown up Velvet was and let them go while holding onto Laphi's arm to keep him from running off.

They left the second the rain was completely gone and showed no signs of coming back. They were to meet with the fifth Empyrean and find out exactly what was going on.

(Hello hello, this is the finale of the Berseria arc, which outdoes the Zestiria arc by a mile. I didn't think the arc was going to be this long. And it also looks like we missed Arthur's birthday. I'm reading everything through so I can copy everything for the fan fiction site's version and found I had planned Arthur's birthday. Oh well. You'll get it Wonders of Mysteria's Future arc anyways.

Until the next time we see each other when Vanessa's arc starts up in September.)


	22. Chapter 22

"You've returned." Maotelus said when he saw the group.

"We want to ask you something Lord Maotelus," Arthur began as he held up the Requiem. "Do you know anything about this?"

"I have not seen this anywhere. Where did you find it?"

"In a tower near Aball." Velvet answered.

"There isn't a tower near Aball."

"So that confirms it." Magilou crossed her arms.

"There are two names we wanted to see if you knew." Arthur continued "Lucilius and Ma'ano."

"I'm afraid I haven't heard of Lucilius before. However, Ma'ano sounds familiar."

"Really?" Velvet asked.

"I believe your friend there could give you some answers." He gestured to Vanessa.

"What do you mean?!" Vanessa said in shock.

"The book you have. The book of the purple Phoenix."

"Purple Phoenix?" Eizen asked.

"I...um..."

"You haven't told them yet, have you?" Maotelus looked at Vanessa.

"I...I..."

"Vanessa?" Sorey asked worried.

"Just leave me alone!" She ran out of the temple. Sorey and Mikleo went after her with Rose right behind them.

"What was that about Maotelus?!" Velvet said in anger.

"Laphicet that's enough." Eleanor said.

"What did you say Eleanor?" Velvet turned to Eleanor. "Why did you call him Laphicet?"

"Because that's who he is."

"It's true." Magilou chimed in.

"Velvet..." Maotelus began.

"No. Just hold on. You're Laphicet?" Velvet interrupted him.

"Velvet, what's wrong?" Arthur asked.

"Phi...is that really you?"

"It's been a long time Velvet." Maotelus' formed glowed and reverted back to when Velvet knew him. A young malak who had barely known anything beyond following orders until he joined her. "Are you mad?"

"No, it's just..." Velvet turned her back and followed Vanessa out of the temple.

"Velvet?!" Alisha ran after Velvet with Edna and Lailah following her.

Maotelus, no, Laphicet had sorrow written on his face. He kept his identity a secret for too long just because he was worried about Velvet's reaction. Eleanor with Eizen and Magilou explained to the rest of the group that Laphicet had become the fifth Empyrean after Innominat. The entire journey they were a part of ended with Velvet sacrificing herself with Innominat to stop the scarlet moon. Laphicet, for the first time in years, took a step out of the temple and went to confront Velvet.

She was sitting on a rock with Alisha next to her, Edna not really caring, and Lailah trying to cheer her up. Laphicet apologized, he knew it would take a while for her to fully accept what had happened. She went over to him and hugged him, it had been so long for him, but for her, it hadn't been that long. Before she ended up there, she had learned the truth for why her brother in law killed Laphi, and she had no idea what to do.

After meeting Sorey and the others, she had nearly forgotten about the fact she wasn't from that time. Being her old friends again made it feel like nothing had changed between them. She was happy to know her brother in law wasn't around causing trouble and that the future was exactly how she thought it would be. Laphicet was nearly crying, despite being an Empyrean, he was same little Laphicet as he was before.

Lailah slowly dragged Alisha away as Edna went the other way to inside the temple where the others were waiting. Velvet needed her moment.

Vanessa wasn't in such a great spot. She was crying and nothing Sorey tried was making it any better. Rose suggested to give Vanessa some space but Sorey persisted to ask what was wrong. Vanessa didn't know how to tell them, she had kept it a secret for so long. Sure she had moments where she almost revealed it, but she caught herself each time.

She held onto her book tightly and calmed herself down, she told them that she would tell them everything when they went to the next inn. It was time they knew, and with Laphicet around, she couldn't keep it a secret anymore.

(Well, that's the first chapter to the Phoenix arc, to those who want to know about the whole Lucilius deal, you'll have to wait until the final arc. I did plan to have the new cover up before I posted this, but my schedule said no. So, the new cover might be up by next week or later in September. Anyways, input is always appreciated. I'll be talking more with Vanessa about how she wants this arc to go, so the next chapter might be in the late September area.)


	23. Chapter 23

The truth was...Vanessa was from a different timeline, a version of the world. A place where the four Phoenixes ruled over the four Empyreans long ago. She knew that she wasn't home since the day she met Sorey and the others. The fact no one knew about the phoenixes and there were no signs of her family when she went to the place they were at in her timeline.

She didn't want them to know, she didn't know how they would react, so she kept it a secret. But since Laphicet knew about Ma'ano, it only meant there was something wrong. Like her time was bleeding into that time.

"It's okay" Sorey held her hand. "I don't care if you're from another time. Look at Velvet and Arthur, they're friends and they're from different times."

"Yes but..." Vanessa tried to hold back her cries as she spoke. "They're from this world, this timeline. I'm from a place where we don't know each other, where my family exists."

"Vanessa..."

"If you want to go back to your family," Magilou began, "we have to find out who's behind bringing you here."

"Let's wait on that for a moment." Arthur suggested, "Vanessa has enough pressure on her telling us this. We should take it slowly."

"Maybe if we know more about her time, that will lead us straight to the person who brought her here." Celica added.

"How does that make sense?" Edna spoke up.

"If we're to find who brought her here, we need to find out if they're from this world or that one." Laphicet tried to make sense of Celica's words. "If we can determine what their powers are, we can bring back order to both worlds."

"You've changed Phi," Velvet pointed out. "I'm proud of you."

"Thanks Velvet."

Since Vanessa wasn't in the best of moods to go out, she stayed along with some of the others to help comfort her. Arthur and Velvet took some time of their own to hang out and reevaluate what had happened in the past moments. Not only had they found out Laphicet was alive, they found out Vanessa was from a different timeline. Velvet felt like one more surprise and she'd drop dead.

Arthur smiled a bit then it turned into worry, which Velvet didn't see. He wondered how long he could keep it a secret that he and Celica were from a different world. He had asked Laphicet to not tell anyone as he wanted to do it himself, so it was up to him and Celica to decide when the right time was. He looked back at Velvet who was staring into the sky and figured she didn't need one more problem on her shoulders, so remained silent.

Celica with Rose and Alisha walked around to see the sights. Rose climbed onto a rock and started shouting about the view and how pretty it was while Alisha warned her that it was dangerous. Celica laughed and just as Rose began to tumble from Alisha's telling, she caught Rose with a wind arte. Rose slapped her on the back almost too hard to thank her. Celica kept her smile as Alisha and Rose got distracted by a squirrel that ran by.

Inside was mostly talk about what to do next. Rokurou was unsure about the whole ordeal so took a break to really think about it. It was hard on each of Velvet's friends who were taken from their time. They had no idea what to think nor knew what else to do. They were together again, but at what cost? Sorey's friends didn't have that problem, they had finished their first journey and weren't interrupted by an unnatural power.

Once the night hit, it was time to regroup. They all sat by the fireplace of the inn to talk about what to do next. It wasn't going to be easy to find someone with the power to bring others into another world or time, not even Magilou could pull off a feat like that. The conversation was then interrupted by someone who entered the inn and opened the door so that it slammed into the wall. He was tall with a long black cloak covering his body.

He sat down at a table and ordered a drink. There was something about him that made Arthur curious, no one else in the inn had a strange energy to them; it was like Velvet's malevolence, but stronger and more frequent in its waves. Arthur approached him with the others watching from behind; up close, he heard the man counting down from a hundred.

"One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety-seven, you're running out of time kids."

"Who are you?" Velvet said as she held her blade to his neck. She felt the same energy as Arthur did.

"You'll find out soon enough. But I think you should worry about what effect that other timeline is having on this one. Those phoenixes are powerful and could break the world if you're not careful."

"What does that mean?" Alisha asked.

"Tick tock, you have four hours until the earth pulses overflow with energy and blow to pieces."

"What do we do about it?" Arthur asked angrily.

"My guess is calm the phoenixes down. I'd hate to see this world blow to smithereens so soon." The man threw a feather to them. It was pure white with a glow to it that made it hard to look at.

"What do we do with this?" Sorey asked.

"Figure it out. Fifty-four, fifty-three."

"Stop counting!" Velvet nearly cut the man's throat if it wasn't for Arthur.

"Enough, he's not important right now." Arthur held her back and got her to calm down.

"You're right. Vanessa, you know the most about the phoenixes, you're the only one who can stop them."

"I'll do my best." Vanessa held onto her book tightly.

"I'll be off then." The man took the drink from the waitress and quickly dropped it so that it shattered on the floor. He waved goodbye and was gone in an instant.

Arthur helped the waitress clean up the mess and stared out the window to see the man had already gone out of sight. Whoever he was, he didn't have a good energy to him. Velvet stood by Arthur's side as he looked out the window, she knew something was wrong with that man the second the inn door was slammed open. But it wasn't important, he warned them about the phoenixes of Vanessa's time entering that time.

According to Laphicet, he felt a strong wave of power coming from the earth pulses. But nothing was like that man, there was no way he was native to the world, and judging of Vanessa's expression, she didn't know him either.

(Well that concludes this chapter. I have an idea for what's to come in the upcoming chapters, I'm mainly excited to finally introduce Lucilius as I have a ton planned for him. This arc shouldn't be too long, not like the Berseria arc. There are four phoenixes so four chapters should cover them, plus character development on Vanessa's side. Again, I'm not a romance writer but I'll do my best on developing the relationship between Vanessa and Sorey. Everything takes time, including writing these chapters.)


	24. Chapter 24

Ma'ano, the white Phoenix as Vanessa described him. The one who watched over the people in her world after the Empyreans lost their faith in humanity. He resided in the wind earth pulse, and it was there that the party needed to go. Since Vanessa knew more about Ma'ano than anyone else, she was the one who would lead the party. Sorey also volunteered as he was the Shepherd. Zaveid and Celica also agreed with Eleanor as the final member to go. The earth pulse was a dangerous place and too many in it would likely cause more havoc than needed.

Arthur bid them farewell with Velvet who gave them good luck in the form of an apple. While Laphicet wanted to join in as well, he knew it would be too much for a being like him to be around. With the earth pulses unstable, it was best that he watched from afar and fixed any problems after the Phoenixes were calmed down.

Sorey lead the team to the earth pulse with Vanessa keeping an eye on how stable the power levels were. The power from Ma'ano was increasing by the minute, which was much greater than they were in her world; something was wrong. When they approached the chamber, the phoenix was trying to break out of a barrier that surrounded him. It was a barrier made of green crystals that formed a cone around him with each individual crystal in the form of a feather.

"What is this?" Sorey asked.

"I don't know" Vanessa replied, "I've never seen a barrier like this."

"Whatever it is, it's keeping that bird from leaving" Zaveid said.

"Let's get him out then!" Eleanor rushed over but was thrown back by the power of the barrier.

"Be careful!" Celica ran to Eleanor's side to help. "This power is incredible."

The Phoenix finally broke out of his containment with Vanessa's help, but there was something off about him. He immediately went after her to attack her, to which Sorey took out his sword and parried the blow back. Ma'ano was acting out of the normal to what Vanessa knew him as; he swung himself against the pillars and attacked at random.

Vanessa took out her halberd as the others prepared for a fight. With Ma'ano making his attacks randomly, it was hard to keep track of him. Even so, the group had to find a way to calm him down. Celica and Zaveid summoned a tornado to suck in the Phoenix as the others went to strike. Vanessa knew the best way to stop Ma'ano was to get him on the ground so Sorey could purify him; she went to Sorey and told him the plan. He agreed and both went to the others to tell them the plan.

Celica and Zaveid jumped out of the way as Ma'ano went for an attack against them and Eleanor used her spear send the Phoenix back. "Be more careful" Vanessa yelled out, not wanting the phoenix to be too badly hurt.

"Wait, do you hear something?" Eleanor said as she looked up.

"It's rain." Vanessa said.

"What is with this weather?" Zaveid said with annoyance in his tone.

"I've got an idea! We need to get a way for the rain to get inside!"

"Vanessa are you crazy?!" Celica yelled to Vanessa. "Breaking the ceiling could possibly make things worse for us!"

"But we have to try!"

"Let's follow what Vanessa says" Sorey agreed as he blocked an attack. "She knows Ma'ano better than us."

Vanessa jumped above the Phoenix with her halberd in hand and swung upwards to slice a portion of the rocks off. Celica nodded to Zaveid who went to aid Sorey and Eleanor. Celica used her wind artes to keep Vanessa in the air as she started her own arte to break down the ceiling. The rain poured in and made the Phoenix cower away.

With Ma'ano on the ground and weakened by the rain, Sorey purified him.

"Ma'ano?" Vanessa said his name.

"It would seem I have caused some trouble." Ma'ano said as he looked around to see the broken cavern.

"Something like that." Zaveid said then immediately got hit on the back by Celica.

"We're glad you're back" Sorey said. "But, can you tell us what happened?"

"I'm not so sure myself, I remember coming to this area, then being approached by someone. Someone I didn't recognize." Ma'ano began, "he told me to stay still, the it went blank."

"Now that everything is in order, we better go back." Celica suggested, "we still have the others to fight."

"The others?"

"The other three phoenixes, they're in earth pulses like this and we need to calm them down before the energy levels rise so much that it overloads this world."

"That is a problem, in that case. Take this" the Phoenix plucked out one of his feathers and gave it Vanessa. "Good luck out there."

The group returned to the inn and made their next plan. The fire earth pulse was next, Velvet offered to lead the next group, along with Lailah and of course, Sorey and Vanessa. They set out to set things right with the Phoenix that laid inside, Zahire.

(Update: Chapter 25 has a release date, but it won't be announced until after the cover for this story has been changed. I have custom covers in the making for this and the final arc, then after that a sneak peek to what's to come.

The Vesperia X Xillia crossover will be in progress once this has ended and will have a beginning scene that occurs before the story begins. Which is basically an idea I made up when role playing with a person we don't talk about. Enjoy.)


	25. Chapter 25

"This Zahire," Velvet began to say. "What do we do about him?"

"Don't eat him that's for sure," Vanessa said.

"I wasn't planning to."

"What's the plan?" Lailah asked.

"We do what we did last time. We just need to beat him enough so that Sorey can purify him."

The group entered the Earth Pulse to the Phoenix was trapped in a cage. Velvet summoned her claw and broke the cage, ready for an attack just like the one Vanessa and Sorey told her about. She slammed her claw against the cage and broke it, then in a second, jumped back before the Phoenix made his move.

The Phoenix shot a beam of fire at the team to which Lailah blocked. Sorey and Vanessa attacked at the same time as Velvet ran to get in a final hit. With a team of mainly fighters, they made the Phoenix rethink his strategy. He rose above them and covered the ground in fire; another attack Lailah had to block. She surrounded herself with paper and absorbed the fire before she sent it right back at him.

Vanessa, with her halberd, knocked the Phoenix into the ground, and hard enough for him to take time to regain his strength. Before he could, Sorey used the silver flame to get back to his senses.

"What's going on?" Zahire asked.

"It's a long story." Velvet said.

"Take this to help you fight against him." The Phoenix plucked out one of his feathers and gave it to Vanessa. "Good luck out there little one."

"Thank you," Vanessa bowed.

"This is getting easier, come on guys." Sorey said.

The party returned to the inn; it took about ten minutes to defeat Zahire, a record time. Since they were expecting an attack and sort of knew what to expect, they didn't have much troubles. Laphicet commented on how the earth pulses were returning to normal, and at that rate, the world would be back to balance. Which was a good thing, it meant that they were one step closer to stopping whatever Lucilius had planned.

Vanessa looked at the three feathers she had, one of pure white, one red and one green. She didn't know what to do with them just yet; Sorey said that he had faith she would figure it out in no time once she got the rest of the feathers.

(I was waiting until I got the cover done to make another chapter of this story, I am so tired. After Vanessa's arc is done, there will be another long break and I'll start the last arc. After that, the Xillia X Vesperia fan fiction will have its first chapter and custom cover. This one will be full fan fiction, not a crossover with my series or another series that isn't Tales.)


	26. Chapter 26

(These fight scenes are killing me. For some reason I can't imagine four fights with similar aspects. I'm going to combine two boss fights because they're not going to be any longer, the characters figured out the pattern and I'm too lazy to mix things up right now.)

Shirei was next on the list, the third one. Thanks to the second one's short time, the party had plenty of time to deal with the next two. However, they couldn't get too confident. If they stumbled even a bit, they would lose time faster than they gained it.

Arthur, Mikleo and Rokurou joined Vanessa and Sorey to fight Shirei, a team of mostly people who could work together. Rokurou was a wild card. He tended to work on his own accord and didn't take into consideration what the others did. Only Velvet was known to control his temper, but she wasn't present to do so. Instead, they had Arthur and Rokurou arguing over what step was the best for them.

The five entered the water earth pulse and got ready for a fight. Rokurou was the one to break Shirei's containment to start their fight. Their priority was to exhaust the Phoenix enough to get it down so Sorey could use the silver flame to calm him down.

Arthur began with an arte to freeze the walls and ceiling as Mikleo shot ice spikes at the Phoenix. Rokurou attacked from behind when the Phoenix was distracted by the casters. When the Phoenix was lower to the ground, Vanessa struck him hard with her halberd and got him to stay down.

Sorey used the silver flame to purify him and he regained his senses. He told the party the story about the man who attacked him. He didn't know anything beyond the first few minutes and gave Vanessa a blue feather to help her out.

Last was the Phoenix in the earth pulse of the element earth. They had an hour and a half left before the timer went to zero.

"You did this faster than I expected," the man said as he showed up behind the party.

"No thanks to you," Velvet retorted.

"Now, now, don't be so upset darling. You're doing great."

"You did this in the first place, why tell us to stop what you started?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"No..." Vanessa responded.

"If you get out alive, which I know you will, I'll give you the answer." The man left without a single word after that.

"Is it okay to say I hate him?" Vanessa asked.

"I don't see a problem, I think we all do," Arthur sighed.

Sorey, Vanessa, Edna, Eizen and Magilou, the final team for the fourth Phoenix, Mo'ona. They started off strong, with a plan in mind and the team to fulfill it. Magilou and Eizen stayed in the back to cast Artes while Eizen, Sorey and Vanessa took the lead on the frontal attack. With the help of earth Artes, the fighters were able to get high enough to reach the phoenix to deal damage.

Vanessa, with Edna, got high enough to slam her halberd down on the Phoenix and Eizen shot him into the wall. An easy enough fight. Sorey purified it and Vanessa got the last feather, one that glowed in an orange light.

The five returned to the inn where the others waited for them. With the timer at zero and no causalities, it was safe to say the threat of the phoenixes was gone. All that was left was one who started the problem. Arthur went through the Requiem to try to find answers.


	27. Chapter 27

(I've taken out the parts of the Phoenix arc that say Lucilius' name since they don't know it's him, and I made a scene beforehand which reveals his name and the characters are supposed to be shocked to learn it's him.)

Vanessa looked at the feathers she had, a white one, a blue one, a red one, a green one, an orange one, and a purple one. She didn't know what to do with them. She put her head on the table and looked at each one to see if they did anything when they were close to one another. Celica approached her and told that it was a good idea to take a break instead of going straight into another problem; the others were outside taking in the free time they had, so it would be best for her to do the same.

The rest of group were outside eating. While some wanted to plan out what to do next, others took the time off to sleep in the sun. Vanessa stopped and giggled at the boys, most who were asleep as Edna threw flowers on them. Arthur got up when a flower hit his head and threw a flower back at Edna.

"How are you doing Vanessa?" Arthur asked.

"I'm fine," she responded. "Just trying to figure out what to do with the feathers I have."

"Why don't ask the guy who gave you the white one?" Edna suggested. "He wanted you get these didn't he?"

"How did you figure that out?" Arthur looked at her.

"He made the Phoenix goes crazy, so he should be the one to talk to."

Velvet sighed, her expression going from disgusted to stoic in the same minute. She didn't like the presence that man had. And from how calm he was when talking about the earth pulses, he didn't seem concerned at all that the world was in danger. That either meant he knew the party would handle the situation, or he was hoping they'd fail.

The next part was tricky, they had to find the man. The first time they met him, he found them, and they hadn't seen him before. That was Vanessa pulled out the white feather the man gave her. It was glowing brighter than before, like a blinding sun. It raised itself in the air as the quill pointed in the direction of the old temple where the party found Rokurou.

They all sighed then accepted if that was where the man was, that was where they needed to go. In the way, was a river that wasn't there before. It flowed heavily and didn't look like it was going to give up. Vanessa approached it then flinched when a fish jumped up and smacked her in the face. Edna was laughing silently then Celica hit the seraphim in the back.

Both Mikleo and Arthur created a bridge of ice to get across, one that broke instantly due to the strength of the current. They had no ideas beyond that. Sorey tapped Vanessa on the shoulder and pointed at her bag, there was a blue glow inside of it. She pulled out the blue feather and it released an energy around the party to calm down the water.

The party went across with an ice bridge and headed for the temple. Inside were obstacles instead of monsters, three to exact, one for each feather that Vanessa had, except for the purple and the white one.

"I have to commend you all, you're more determined than I initially took you for." The man said.

"Who are you?" Vanessa asked with her halberd in her hand.

"Please, call me Lucilius."

"The angel from the Requiem!" Celica yelled out.

"So you're the one who's been bringing us to this time?" Velvet assumed.

"Correct therion." Lucilius clapped.

"What are you gaining from this?" Arthur went for his sword and Lucilius stopped him with one arte.

"Everything will be answered in time. For now, I hope you enjoy your last moments on this world."

"What does that mean?" Vanessa asked.

"The mana here enough for my plans."

"If you drain the mana from this world, then all living things will die!" Velvet summoned her claw and went after Lucilius.

"I suppose that is true." He grabbed onto her arm and pushed her aside. He then kicked her to the ground. "You'll find fighting me is going to harder than you think."


	28. Chapter 28

The party kept their weapons held firmly; they didn't know what Lucilius was going to do next. He was strong enough to defeat Velvet in a second and could take them down easily, no matter if it was one by one or all together. Arthur gained the confidence to try, despite his knowledge he was nothing against a being such as Lucilius.

Lucilius grabbed onto Arthur's blade and spun it to throw Arthur on the ground then kicked Arthur back like it was nothing. He looked right to Vanessa who was holding her halberd while shaking. Sorey stood in between them and kept his sword up to protect her. Lucilius grabbed onto his sword and kicked him in the chest to send him collapsing as well.

"So, is this what you call your friends?" Lucilius asked Vanessa.

"Don't bully her!" Eleanor attempted to make an attack, only for Alisa and Edna to stop her.

"At least you can understand pattern recognition. I have no intention to kill any of you here, that wouldn't be much fun now would it?"

"You enjoy this don't you? You like to watch people suffer because of your actions!" Vanessa yelled.

"That's right! I'm having so much fun watching you all suffer and go through life fighting an impending death! It all makes me so happy! Once I'm done here, I'll kill you all one by one! That will be the most fun I'll have in this world!"

The man that stood before them, he was insane, his actions, his words, every piece of him, he was evil to the core. Lucilius took a hold of Vanessa's halberd and broke it half, she wasn't anything to him. None of them were. Their trial to purify the Phoenixes of Vanessa's world was just a play to him, his only goal was to watch them fight for their lives, to see them try their best against beings they hadn't fought before.

It was finally his turn to make a move. He had stalled for enough time and was getting bored of waiting. He was ready enact his plan, and he wanted to see the faces of the people who tried so hard to save the world watch it burn to ashes. His face said everything about him, he was smiling, smiling because he knew that he had the power to destroy them and they knew it too. He turned his back to them and disappeared in a white light.

Eleanor and Alisha aided in their defeated allies while Vanessa was frozen in shock. Lucilius, a being from another world like her, a being so powerful, he defeated three of her allies effortlessly. Even in her world, there wasn't anyone so confident in their own power, that they stood up to a group of heroes like he did. Rose snapped Vanessa out of her state, it wasn't the time to stay in one place. They were just asking to be attacked if Lucilius changed his mind.

The group headed to Velvet's house for their base of operations. Arthur, Velvet and Sorey were back on their feet by the time Vanessa got her thoughts together. She held her broken halberd and stared at it, she had worked hard to make it, and even harder to train herself to use it.

She stood up and went into another room. When she emerged from the room hours later, she held the halberd in her hands, but it was different. It had blue metal on the bottom and top of the handle with feathers hanging down from both sides. Her clothes were also different, she had a purple shirt under her grey jacket, blue pants with the right side shorter than the left and brown shoes.

"Vanessa?" Sorey asked.

"I'm not going to sit down and let him push us around," Vanessa said.

"Yeah, but what about..." Lailah pointed to her outfit and halberd.

"It was time for an upgrade."

"As much as I like your enthusiasm Vanessa," Arthur started. "We don't know his weakness, or if he has any."

"Arthur's right," Mikleo commented. "We should take this slowly."

"He's still out there!" Vanessa yelled, "if we let him do what he wants, he'll cause more chaos to spread, and...and I can't let anyone get hurt!"

"Vanessa..." Laphicet said.

Vanessa was letting her own anger get the better of her, she had so many emotions going through her, then Sorey hugged her. He reassured her that everything was going to be okay, they would stop Lucilius, just not right away. Vanessa started to cry, she couldn't bear to see her friends get hurt, not like how they did when trying to fight Lucilius for the first time.


	29. Chapter 29

Arthur and Celica sat at the table as they read the Requiem to find any information on Lucilius. Anything that stated a weakness or how to defeat him. But there was nothing. The only clues that existed were the missing pages that were torn out, and there was no saying where those ended up. The stories of his defeat never gave any instructions on how to stop him, making it harder to understand how he was beaten in the first place.

Vanessa was sitting across the two with her own book, she was writing down the events of their journey in hopes there were hints to help them. Sorey looked over her shoulder and pointed out the temple again, they found the book in the temple, and from how Vanessa described it, it hadn't been touched in years. There had to be some chance that the missing pages remained in the temple.

There was also a certain time when everything happened, Arthur and Celica showed up at about the same time Velvet did, which was also when Crowe said she saw the temple appear. If Lucilius had been sealed away until that time, and he was the one who ripped out the pages, the missing pages had to be inside.

With a glimmer of hope, the party returned to the temple. Luckily, Lucilius was nowhere to be found. The party split up into teams to look for the missing pages, they checked the easily accessible rooms, the secret rooms, and rooms that defied the laws of nature. Vanessa and Sorey opened the door to one room that when looking up, looked as if they were underwater. A large serpent like monster swam above them, so they were careful not to make any sudden movements or loud sounds.

They reached the end of the room where a door was in plain sight. Vanessa opened it and found it was like an old bedroom, there was a bed with torn sheets, a small desk with unorganized papers and a lamp that looked to be broken. Vanessa went to the desk and saw the papers were written in the same language the Requiem was in.

"We should take these with us, Arthur can translate them for us." Sorey suggested, but Vanessa was preoccupied with something else.

"Look at the state of the papers," she pointed out the water drops on the paper and how most were crumbled up and thrown away.

"He was upset, being trapped here for years with just paper to keep him company. Come on Vanessa, let's keep looking for the pages."

Sorey and Vanessa eventually met up with Arthur and Celica. Vanessa showed Arthur the papers she gathered and he just looked at the in horror. She wasn't sure why that was his reaction, then he pointed out that how the words were written in black in early dates, then were red in later dated entries. Vanessa didn't realize it until then, there was no bottle of ink on the desk. Lucilius had used his own blood to write on the papers. Arthur folded the papers and put them away in his bag, their objective was to find the missing pages of the Requiem, anything else came was asecond priority.

The others didn't have much luck in their search, Lucilius really didn't want them to know what was on those missing pages, he probably destroyed them long ago and they were just wasting their time. But Vanessa wasn't ready to give up, she was determined to stop Lucilius, so was determined to find those pages. Rokurou agreed with her, nothing ventured nothing gained as he believed. There had to be somewhere they missed.

Sorey then thought about going back to Lucilius' room, maybe there was a clue there. Arthur and Celica agreed to go with Vanessa and Sorey while the other scoped the temple again. Arthur sat down at the desk and read through some of the papers with Celica holding the Requiem so he could see if any of the pages were from it. Most were diary entries, others were notes about the temple, and one was a letter. Arthur read it out loud, it was about Lucilius' father, how much Lucilius hated his father and wished things went differently.

Without context, it didn't make much sense, and the other papers didn't have any information on his childhood or any events before he was sealed in the temple. Vanessa and Sorey sat on the bed to take a break, Sorey kept trying to reposition himself while Vanessa just watched him, he said he felt like he was sitting on a brick. The bed itself was comfortable according to Vanessa, "soft and fluffy" as she described it. Sorey stood up and moved the blankets to find a box.

There were six gemstones on it, each one the same color of a feather that Vanessa had. She grabbed the feathers from her bag and unlocked the box, she opened the box to find something like that looked like a speaker. She pressed the button and a voice came from it.

"Are you having fun trashing my room? Looking for any glimpse of hope that something in there can help you stop me?" Lucilius had recorded lines, knowing they would search his room. "Here's a hint, phoenix kid, use your brain, or rather, your feathers. Have fun."

"What is wrong with this guy?" Celica asked. "Why is he helping us?"

"He wanted us to defeat the Phoenix, let us explore the temple and his room, and now he's giving us tips on how to find what we need to defeat him?" Arthur said completely confused.

"Do you think he wants us to gain hope just to crush it?" Vanessa suggested.

"I wouldn't be surprised, either way, we still have to find those pages, even if it just says he can't be defeated, we have to try."

"Use my feathers..." Vanessa thought. "These feathers opened the box, what else can they open?"

"Here we go, Vanessa is getting curious." Arthur laughed.

"Oh, shut up Arthur."

The entire temple shook, and made Arthur drop the papers he was holding. Celica immediately opened the door to see that the serpent monster was staring right down at her. She closed the door instantly and said they had a big problem. The monster banged on the door over and over again while the four prepared themselves for a fight, there was no telling why it had gotten so mad, but Arthur theorized it had to do something with the box Lucilius left them.

(Another author's note, I've read through a lot of early chapters of this story, and while I won't call it bad story wise, it is probably the worst I've done in both word count and formatting. I like a balance of dialogue and descriptions and there is just way too much dialogue for my liking. As much as I'd like to go through and fix all that, less dialogue, and longer chapters, I would run the risk of retconning information or repeating myself too much. So, instead I'm going to rectify that by making these next chapters longer. They should reach around 5K words instead of the 800 that I used to aim for.)


End file.
